Ten Books I Wish Had Less Politics

Top 10 Tuesday is a post hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and this week's topic is Top Ten Books With More/Less X.

1. Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, # 3) by Suzanne Collins
2. Insurgent/Allegiant (Divergent, # 2 & 3) by Veronica Roth
3. Gameboard of the Gods (Age of X, # 1) by Richelle Mead
4. The Crown (The Selection, # 5) by Kiera Cass
5. Deliverance (Defiance, # 3) by CJ Redwine
6. Legend (the entire series) by Marie Lu
7. Ignite Me (Shatter Me, # 3) by Tahereh Mafi
8. Anatomy of a Misfit by Andrea Portes
9. Matched (the entire series) by Ally Condie
10. Pandemonium/Requiem (Delirium, # 2 & 3) by Lauren Oliver

As I've gotten older politics have become more important to me, but I still hate talking about it with other people. And I especially HATE reading about it because I read for fun and to relieve stress...not to cause it. And authors who slip political statements into their books with the hopes of persuading the reader to their opinions is one of my biggest reading pet peeves. Not all of these books fall into that category, but they all have some kind of political focus or topic that I'd just rather not be there, even if it's just about the fictional world the characters live in. What do you guys think? Do you hate politics in books too? Or is it just me? Let me know!

Delirium - Pilot Review

I was supposed to do a Top Ten Tuesday post today, but I didn't love the topic (cover trends I like/dislike). Instead, I felt like this would be a good opportunity to do a short review of the Delirium pilot that Hulu is featuring for a month (starting June 20th).

Delirium by Lauren Oliver was one of my favorite reads of 2013. The writing style was so beautiful. Lena, as a character, was so well written. She was passionate, terrified, and often times desperate. All of which made this such an enjoyable read.

Needless to say, when I saw that Hulu was airing the pilot developed for Fox (which Fox chose not to pick up) I was so excited. I think Delirium would be the perfect fit for a TV series instead of a movie. So June 20th, I sat down to check out this pilot and wanted to give you guys a mini review of what I thought.

The pilot was both exciting and disappointing at the same time. It essentially goes through the entire book in one episode. Aspects of Pandemonium (book 2) were even brought into the pilot as well. From what I've seen this pilot was created for Fox as I've already said, and Fox decided not to pick up the series. That being said, I think had Fox decided to pick it up the pilot might have been revamped before airing to the public. At least, I hope that's the case. They could have spent an entire season on book 1 alone.

The pilot and the book had differences of course. Even more than a movie that typically spans about 2 hours, cramming an entire book into 43 minutes will require elements to be cut, multiple characters to get merged into one, and changes to be made all-around, etc. Emma Roberts did a really good job jumping into the character of Lena. With only 43 minutes to see what these actors can do with the characters given, Daren Kagasoff, Jeanine Mason, and the other cast members were great choices.

All of that being said, I'd like Hulu to see that there's much interest in Delirium. My hopes would be that they pick up the series and revamp the pilot. So...while I didn't LOVE this pilot, I can see potential with the actors and such for this to be a really successful TV series.

In case you missed the trailer, here it is...

Have you seen the Delirium pilot? What did you think? Let me know!

Requiem - Review

Requiem (Delirium, # 3)

By: Lauren Oliver

Published: March 5th 2013 by HarperCollins Children's Books

391 pages

Genre: YA, Science Fiction, Dystopian

Source: Personal Kindle Library (Christmas present, thank you Mom!)

( Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository | Booksamillion.com )

*Note: The above links to Amazon, Book Depository, and Booksamillion.com are affiliate links. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know readers.

Goodreads description--They have tried to squeeze us out, to stamp us into the past.

But we are still here.

And there are more of us every day.

Now an active member of the resistance, Lena has been transformed. The nascent rebellion that was under way in Pandemonium has ignited into an all-out revolution in Requiem, and Lena is at the center of the fight.

After rescuing Julian from a death sentence, Lena and her friends fled to the Wilds. But the Wilds are no longer a safe haven—pockets of rebellion have opened throughout the country, and the government cannot deny the existence of Invalids. Regulators now infiltrate the borderlands to stamp out the rebels, and as Lena navigates the increasingly dangerous terrain, her best friend, Hana, lives a safe, loveless life in Portland as the fiancée of the young mayor.

Maybe we are driven crazy by our feelings.

Maybe love is a disease, and we would be better off without it.

But we have chosen a different road.

And in the end, that is the point of escaping the cure: We are free to choose.

We are even free to choose the wrong thing.

Requiem is told from both Lena’s and Hana’s points of view. The two girls live side by side in a world that divides them until, at last, their stories converge.

Delirium was my first encounter with Lauren Oliver and I fell in love with her writing style. I also loved the unique concept of a world where love was considered a disease—amor deliria nervosa. What a beautiful name for “the love disease.” And I fell in love with Lena and Alex and Hana. All of it. A world where people fight for their right to love. It was frantic, desperate, and so incredibly important. Pandemonium was pretty much ruined for me. The big cliffhanger at the end I knew from the get-go. That was a total accident, but truthfully I don’t think the big cliffhanger would have been all that much of a surprise for me anyway considering what Lena had already gone through in Delirium. While I enjoyed Pandemonium, it just wasn’t the same as Delirium for me. I spent the majority of that book emotionally detached from the decisions Lena was making. And then there's Requiem. I never read any reviews to see WHY people weren’t happy with it, but SO many people said they were disappointed with Requiem. And after my own disappointment with series enders in the last year or two (Clockwork Princess, Allegiant, Mockingjay, Forever, Bitterblue, The Dark and Hollow Places, etc), I really wasn’t looking forward to a series that I started off loving so much ending in disappointment. Thus I went into Requiem expecting to be let down.

While Requiem did have a writing style in keeping with what I’ve come to love and expect from Lauren Oliver, I didn’t find myself highlighting as many passages as I expected. At one point I told my husband that I loved Lauren Oliver’s writing, but not so much the actual events of the book itself. I’m assuming if you’re reading my review of Requiem then you’ve read both Delirium and Pandemonium. If you haven’t there will be spoilers for those two books. In Delirium, Alex and Lena fall in love, right? And because of that they attempt to escape to the Wilds where they will be free to love each other as they please. But at the very end, Alex sacrifices himself to let Lena make it to the other side. In Pandemonium, Lena erroneously assumes that Alex is dead and she proceeds to develop a new relationship with Julian. Alex returns at the end of Pandemonium having escaped from the Crypts where he’d been tortured. Alex, to say the least, isn’t really ecstatic that Lena appears to have moved on. Because he’s angry with her, he doesn’t respond to her the way she hopes, which leaves her confused. Lena then spends the majority of the book trying to show Alex that she doesn’t need him that she doesn’t hurt because they’re not together, etc. And poor Julian is really just caught in the mix.

Where Delirium was solely narrated by Lena, Pandemonium was a mix of chronology bouncing back and forth between "then" and "now". And Requiem was split between Lena and Hana, Lena’s old best friend who has now been cured, narrating. What was hard for me to remember while reading Requiem was that the cure doesn’t completely shut off all emotion, just love. So where Hana experiences a good dose of fear and guilt, she still doesn’t really experience love anymore. I don’t know. It’s hard to explain because it’s not really completely clear. But essentially I say all of that to say that I was confused between reading Hana’s parts and the ending where Lena and Hana finally come face to face again. You’re reading the majority of that interaction from Lena’s standpoint so you don’t completely know what Hana is thinking or feeling, but Hana’s actions don’t entirely seem in sync with her thoughts, behaviors, and feelings throughout her own narrations prior to this moment.

I remember thinking that Lena was letting me down while reading Requiem. I felt like she’d grown so much from where she started in Delirium and while she made some assumptions that I was frustrated with in Pandemonium, she was still growing. Yet Requiem showed me an immature Lena for the majority of the book. Her actions toward Alex were mostly jealousy based. When he hurt or rejected her (despite her having “moved on” with Julian) she retaliates with the purpose of hurting and rejecting Alex the same way he rejected and hurt her. I’ve said it before, but that’s just not true love. True love wants what’s best for the other, not just wanting the other to hurt because you hurt. Granted, Lena doesn’t have any examples in her life to show her how true love should behave. Love has been absent from her for the majority of her life. So it is somewhat understandable that she doesn’t respond properly. Lena does grow in respect to this and her feelings deepen and change from retaliatory in nature to a more honest and true kind.

Without giving anything away, I can’t say that the ending of Requiem was everything I could have hoped for, but it wasn’t as much of a disappointment as I expected either. I was thinking Allegiant here people. And what I got was a good bit more hope than that.

My favorite quotes:

"That is what Alex is now: a shadow-boy, an illusion."

"But we have chosen a different road. And in the end that is the point of escaping the cure: We are free to choose.
We are even free to choose the wrong thing."

"This is not the person I wanted to become: Hatred has carved a permanent place inside me, a hollow where things are so easily lost."

“Take down the walls.
That is, after all, the whole point. You do not know what will happen if you take down the walls; you cannot see through to the other side, don’t know whether it will bring freedom or ruin, resolution or chaos. It might be paradise, or destruction.
Take down the walls.
Otherwise you must live closely, in fear, building barricades against the unknown, saying prayers against the darkness, speaking verse of terror and tightness.
Otherwise you may never know hell, but you will not find heaven, either. You will not know fresh air and flying.
All of you, wherever you are: in your spiny cities or your one-bump towns. Find it, the hard stuff, the links of metal and chink, the fragments of stone filling your stomach. And pull, and pull, and pull.
I will make a pact with you: I will do it if you will do it, always and forever.
Take down the walls.”

Ultimately, Requiem still gets 4 Stars from me. Have you read Requiem? What did you think? Let me know!

Pandemonium - Review

Pandemonium (Delirium, # 2)

By: Lauren Oliver

Published: February 28th 2012 by HarperTeen

375 pages

Genre: YA, Science Fiction, Dystopian

Source: Personal Kindle Library

( Goodreads | Amazon | The Book Depository | Booksamillion.com )

*Note: The above links to Amazon, The Book Depository, and Booksamillion.com are affiliate links. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know.

Goodreads description--I’m pushing aside
the memory of my nightmare,
pushing aside thoughts of Alex,
pushing aside thoughts of Hana
and my old school,
push,
push,
push,
like Raven taught me to do.
The old life is dead.
But the old Lena is dead too.
I buried her.
I left her beyond a fence,
behind a wall of smoke and flame.

Lauren Oliver delivers an electrifying follow-up to her acclaimed New York Times bestseller, Delirium. This riveting, brilliant novel crackles with the fire of fierce defiance, forbidden romance, and the sparks of a revolution about to ignite.

Remember when I raved about Delirium? I LOVED that book! Great story. Great characters. Great writing. Just SO GOOD all around. Well when I saw that Pandemonium was on sale for $0.99, I HAD to jump on it. Granted, this was the Enhanced Ebook version NOT the Kindle version (which is $8.99--tell me if that makes sense). I will say really quickly about the enhanced ebook version...this version has video content included which is super cool. However, only certain devices will handle this content. My first generation Kindle Fire does not. As a matter of fact, no device that I have handles the extra content. So that was a bit discouraging. However, it's still much cheaper than the regular kindle version.

Now about the story itself....

Pandemonium picks up pretty much right where Delirium left off. Alex and Lena have been separated because Lena made it to the Wilds and Alex is stuck on the other side. Lena finds that through the adrenaline of her escape she's missed the fact that she was grazed by a bullet. Now that things have calmed down a bit, the wound really begins to take it's toll on her. A group of Invalids stumble upon her and take her in to help her get back on her feet. What she finds is a new family.

Pandemonium isn't told chronologically. It bounces back and forth between "then" and "now". While I really do think this was the best approach for telling this portion of the story, I can't say I loved this part. I don't know, I'm not normally a huge fan of books that jump around in time like this. It just depends.

Lena is still a strong character. She's come so far from where she was in Delirium--a scared, rules-following girl. Now she's angry and bitter and sad. She's lost so much. Her mom, Hana, Grace...Alex. And Lena uses these losses to fuel herself. She becomes part of the resistance, because really, how could she not? And she finds herself tailing the face of the opposition (or at least, the youth's version of the opposition) in order to uncover as much information about their plans to begin dolling out the cure for the deliria to children under eighteen, who have previously been designated as dangerous candidates for the cure. There's a reason the scientists aren't performing the procedure on children under eighteen.

Now I need to take a minute and discuss how I accidentally stumbled upon a spoiler that completely changed the way I experienced this book--or changed how I would have experienced it. A Top Ten Tuesday topic a while back was Top Ten Beginnings/Endings and I stumbled upon a quote that happens to be the last sentence--a one word sentence--of this book. Totally my own fault as the post had "potential spoilers" listed clearly for me to see. But I pressed on, not expecting to find a book I haven't read or one I wanted to read. For those of you who have read this one, you know what a game changer that was. For those of you who haven't read it...well I don't want to say too much. GAME CHANGER. I won't say that spoiler "ruined" Pandemonium for me, but I read the entire book with the knowledge of that one word being the very last sentence coloring every page and every scene. That resulted in a lack of attachment in places where I probably would have otherwise been attached and attachment in places where I probably otherwise wouldn't have paid much attention. And obviously as spoilers typically go, I found myself extremely frustrated watching this inevitable collision course that I couldn't prevent or change.

I do want to say, as vaguely as possible, that Lena makes a huge assumption throughout the whole of this book that drove me batty. Everyone knows the deal with assumptions, right? Well being the reader of many books that I am, I know from experience that what the character believes is fact isn't always fact. And that if you don't witness "things" for yourself then you can't go assuming. This might have been more of an issue for me because of the spoilage mentioned above, but I'm 100% sure this would have been something I picked up on regardless of knowing that last sentence ahead of time. What really frustrated me about this assumption is that Lena's already lived this experience once. Slightly different circumstances, but still, I would have expected her to have learned this lesson already.

Pandemonium had a few too many moments where something major was about to happen only to be saved at the very last minute, but I can overlook that because Lauren Oliver's writing style still completely captures me. She's poetic, and lyrical, and I found myself highlighting ginormous chunks of passages. I think perhaps Delirium was still slightly better in this aspect than Pandemonium, but maybe that's because I listened to Delirium on audiobook whereas I read Pandemonium and hearing this poetic writing and sometimes complete desperation from Lena out loud enhanced the overall experience for me. Mark this series down as one where the audiobooks might trump reading them.

My favorite quotes (not listing page numbers or locations, sorry):

"I am not born all at once, the new Lena.
Step by step--and then, inch by inch.
Crawling, insides curled into dust, mouth full of the taste of smoke.
Fingernail by fingernail, like a worm.
That is how she comes into the world, the new Lena."

"Love, the deadliest of all deadly things.
Love it kills you.
Alex.
Both when you have it.
Alex.
And when you don't.
Alex."

"Grief is like sinking, like being buried. I am in water the tawny color of kicked-up dirt. Every breath is full of choking. There is nothing to hold on to, no sides, no way to claw myself up. There is nothing to do but let go.
Let go. Feel the weight all around you, feel the squeezing of your lungs, the slow, low pressure. Let yourself go deeper. There is nothing but the taste of metal, and the echoes of old things, and days that look like darkness."

"I read once about a kind of fungus that grows in trees. The fungus begins to encroach on the systems that carry water and nutrients up from the roots to the branches. It disables them one by one--it crowds them out. Soon, the fungus--and only the fungus--is carrying the water, and the chemicals, and everything else the tree needs to survive. At the same time it is decaying the tree slowly from within, turning it minute by minute to rot.
That is what hatred is. It will feed you and at the same time turn you to rot.
It is hard and deep and angular, a system of blockades. It is everything and total.
Hatred is a high tower. In the Wilds, I start to build, and to climb."

Pandemonium gets 4 Stars from me. I have that frustration of "I can't wait to get my hands on Requiem so I can find out what the crap happens next" thing going on. I need to know what happens next NOW! Have you read Pandemonium? What did you think? Let me know!

Top Ten Sequels I Can't Wait to Get My Hands On

Top 10 Tuesday is a post hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and this week's topic is Top Ten Sequels I Can't Wait to Get My Hands On.

I went with sequels already released that I can't wait to read, as well as sequels yet to be released that I'm dying to read!

1. The Fiery Heart (Bloodlines, # 4) by Richelle Mead
2. Four Seconds to Lose (Ten Tiny Breaths, # 3) by KA Tucker
3. Requiem (Delirium, # 3) by Lauren Oliver
4. Dark Triumph (His Fair Assassin, # 2) by RL LaFevers
5. Cress (The Lunar Chronicles, # 3) by Marissa Meyer
6. The Evolution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, # 2) by Michelle Hodkin
7. Ruins (Partials, # 3) by Dan Wells
8. Rome (Marked Men, # 3) by Jay Crownover
9. Ruin & Rising (The Grisha, # 3) by Leigh Bardugo (not pictured)
10. The Infinite Sea (The 5th Wave, # 2) by Rick Yancey (not pictured)

I'm sure I'm forgetting some, but since I'm already at 10, I'm going to cut myself off. Which sequels are you dying to get your hands on? Let me know!

Top Ten Books I'd Like to see Turn into a Movie/TV Show

Top 10 Tuesday is a post hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and this week's topic is Top Ten Books I'd Like to See Turned Into a Movie/TV Show.

Ok so I'm totally excluding any book or series that I know a movie IS in the works or ones that the rights have been optioned (Slammed, Hopeless, etc).

1) Partials by Dan Wells

2) The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin (review coming soon)

3) Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

4) This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers (review coming soon)

5) Delirium by Lauren Oliver

6) Code Name Verity & Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein

7) The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

8) Grave Mercy by RL LaFevers

9) Cinder by Marissa Meyer

10) Firelight by Sophie Jordan

11) The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

These are all ones that I think would translate wonderfully to visual media. I'd pay the ridiculous $10 per movie to see each of these...AND their sequels.

Delirium - Review

Delirium (Delirium, # 1)

By: Lauren Oliver

Published: August 2nd 2011 by HarperTeen (first published February 1st 2011)

441 pages

Genre: YA, Sci-Fi, Dystopian

Source: Borrowed from my local library

( Goodreads | Amazon | The Book Depository | Booksamillion.com )

*Note: The above links to Amazon, The Book Depository, and Booksamillion.com are affiliate links. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know readers.

Goodreads description--Ninety-five days, and then I’ll be safe.

I wonder whether the procedure will hurt.

I want to get it over with.

It’s hard to be patient.

It’s hard not to be afraid while I’m still uncured, though so far the deliria hasn’t touched me yet.

Still, I worry.

They say that in the old days, love drove people to madness.

The deadliest of all deadly things: It kills you both when you have it and when you don’t.

Oh boy guys...what to say about Delirium other than "read this book!"???

The concept of love being considered a disease by an entire society was such a unique concept that I was pretty much captivated from the first page. Of course, because this concept is so "out there" I was being a little over analytic with the logistics of it all. But eventually, I was able to just shut that part of my brain off and dive into this interesting and truly sad concept of a world that Lauren Oliver created. A world without love....can anyone truly imagine it?

Lena starts out as a strict rules-follower type of person. She's had too many experiences in the past that haunt her concerning those who try to break the rules--those who fought for love. And after seeing what those people have gone through, the very idea of the "disease"--the deliria--terrifies Lena. She absolutely cannot wait until she turns eighteen so that she can receive the cure. But genius is not needed to know that Lena has quite a wild ride ahead of her.

Initially, I was almost more intrigued by Hana's character than by Lena. Hana is always pushing the edge of what's been deemed appropriate by the government and what her heart calls out to her. Hana and Lena go through a lot throughout the entire story unfolding in Delirium, and I loved how they could be at odds with each other and return back to a place of love and devotion to each other as true friendship allows.

Alex confused me at first because he wasn't really what I was expecting. In the end he lived up to be everything I hoped for. He is the catalyst for so much change within Lena and I don't think we've even seen how far the reach of the ripples that he's caused for Lena and even other secondary characters as a result. I can't wait to find out more.

After reading a couple of books where I felt like the writing was immature (that's the best word I can think of right now), but having a hard time explaining what I meant by that, Delirium was so easy to pick out as being excellent writing--lyrical and poetic. Beautiful. I actually listened to the audio version of this book, read by Sarah Drew. She did an excellent job. She was dramatic and intense and I felt my heart pounding my chest during certain parts of the book. The intensity that she put behind her narration was just what this book called for. Though sometimes Sarah Drew's narration for Alex was slightly off-putting, the rest of the story and the performance was spot on.

Some of my favorite quotes (*note because I listened to this book in audiobook version, it's almost impossible for me to quote directly, specifically punctuation, etc. I did the best I could. And I definitely can't site the location.):

"You can't really be happy unless you're unhappy sometimes." - Hana

"The secret to talking to boys--you have to be angry all the time." - Lena

"Is it possible to flirt without knowing you're flirting?" - Lena --YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"And then my eye went full flutter." -Lena - Ok this one you have to know the context, but trust me...it's hilarious, especially if you've ever had an eye twitch due to stress.

"Apparently the disease turns you into a world class liar." - Lena

"Without love there could be no hate. Without hate, no violence." - Lena followed up by "Hate isn't the most dangerous thing. ...Indifference is." - Alex

"You have to understand. I am no one special. I am just a single girl. Five feet two inches tall. And I am in between in every way. But I have a secret. You can build walls all the way to the sky and I will find a way to fly above them. You can try to pin me down with a hundred thousand arms, but I will find a way to resist. And there are many of us out there. More than you think. People who refuse to stop believing. People who refuse to come to Earth. People who love in a world without walls. People who love into hate and refusal, against hope, and without fear. I love you. Remember. They cannot take it." - Lena

Delirium is a must read in my opinion. Full of beautiful prose, intense pacing, and original in concept. I'm giving Delirium 4.5 Stars. Have you read Delirium? If so, what did you think? Let me know!

Top Ten(ish) Books I've Read 2013 So Far

Top 10 Tuesday is a post hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and this week's topic is Top Ten(ish) Books I've Read 2013 So Far.

1) If I Stay by Gayle Forman (review coming soon)

2) Under the Never Sky & Through the Ever Night by Veronica Rossi

3) Dare You To by Katie McGarry

4) True by Erin McCarthy

5) The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden by Jessica Sorensen

6) The Secret of Ella and Micha & The Forever of Ella and Micha by Jessica Sorsensen

7) Grave Mercy by RL LaFevers

8) The Indigo Spell by Richelle Mead

9) Cinder & Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

10) The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

11) This Girl by Colleen Hoover (review coming soon)

12) The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

13) Delirium by Lauren Oliver (review coming soon)