The Vanishing Season (book #42)

The Vanishing Season by Jodi Lynn Anderson.

Found this book today at my library on the new releases shelf. Thought the cover looked kinda cool so I brought it home (yes I have extremely high standards in choosing a book to read). This book is about 260 pages but I am still surprised that I finished it today!

After some financial struggles 16 year old Maggie and her parents are forced to move from Chicago into an inherited, run down, lakeside side house in the tiny town of Gill Creek, Wisconsin. Being home schooled and with only two other neighbors, 16 yr old Pauline and almost 18 yr old Liam (each with a single parent), relationships take an interesting turn. Add in a serial killer who is killing teenaged girls and tensions are running high. Oh and I almost forgot the spirit who is trying to find a way to protect these three young people it has become attached to.

I enjoyed this story greatly. I felt the characters were well developed. First there is Maggie who is more grown up than she should be from trying not to be a burden to her struggling parents, Pauline who remains childlike and naive since her father's death a few years before and Liam, quiet and reserved, the total opposite of his outspoken Atheist father.  It has mystery, suspense, drama, heartache, love and loss. The ending wasn't my ending but it worked well with this tale.

Quotes:
“The living always think that monsters roar and gnash their teeth. But I've seen that real monsters can be friendly; they can smile, and they can say please and thank you like everyone else. Real monsters can appear to be kind. Sometimes they can be inside us.” 

“You're the main character of your life," Jacie said. "You're too important to die. That's how everybody feels.”

Book #77 The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon

Did you read my last post? Where I mentioned starting a book without having any clue what it is about? Yeah this was another one of those, I was on the library waiting list for so long I forgot what this book was about (if I ever even knew!). The title made me think of murder mystery like The Lovely Bones or similar but NO, wrong!

Set in the not too distant future, 2059, Paige Mahoney is a nineteen year old young woman working high up in the ranks of the criminal underworld. Scion London is under control of a police force (Scion) whose main objective is the apprehension and sometimes execution of clairvoyant persons. Paige has a very rare clairvoyant talent called dreamwalking which makes her services very valuable. Too valuable. 

After making a simple mistake Paige is captured and arrested. She knows she will either be sent to The Tower and tortured for the rest of her days or executed but what is in store for her is so much worse. She is sent along with prisoners from The Tower, some who have been there for 10 years, to the mythical city of Oxford. Turns out Oxford is being used as a voyant prison compound, controlled by a humanlike alien race called the Rephaim.  They are strong, cruel and terrifying but they value the voyants highly, or at least the voyant's gifts.
 
Only one Rephaite keeper, Warden, steps up to the task of being Paige's master. He will be in charge of training her to use her gift. Paige is terrified of him. Although he is standoffish and distant he is not cruel and abusive like the other masters. Soon, Paige begins to realize Warden has motives of his own, motives that are not inline with his ruler and betrothed.  The pair need to learn if they can trust each other in order to accomplish their goals: Paige her freedom and Warden... well I can't say.

The Bone Season is probably one of my favorite books this year. I thought the plot line was interesting and different. The characters were bold, compelling and surprising. I love Paige. Even though she has suffered so much she cannot stop pushing forward. She is bold, cocky and sarcastic even in the face of her enemies. Warden is great too. He is so strong, commanding and very mysterious. Even some of the members of Paige's underground crew were fascinating. I've heard this is book one in a proposed seven book series and I for one cannot wait!

Quotes:
“his thumbs ran over my cheeks. Our foreheads touched. My dreamscape scorched. He set fire to the poppies”

Book #76 All The Truth That's In Me by Julie Berry

I LOVED this book!!! Don't let the cover fool you, it is not scary. Maybe it is just me but I don't usually read the cover before reading a book, or I add something to my to-read list (it is 300 titles long right now) and have forgotten what a book is about by the time I get around to it, so the cover threw me off guard.

I don't know what year it is (Early America I assume) but the setting is Roswell Station (Georgia?). Four years ago, Judith and her best friend disappeared. Her friend's body surfaces a few days later but Judith is nowhere to be found. Two long years pass and Judith returns out of the blue without a tongue, leaving the details of her disappearance a mystery. Now Judith is ignored not only by the community she left behind but also by her own mother. She spends her days doing chores around the homestead and pining over her childhood friend, Lucas, who is set to marry a beautiful girl from town. 

Everything changes when Roswell Station is attacked in a hopeless battle and Judith turns to the one person she believes can help, the only person who knows her secret. Now she must choose: squash the rumors and finally tell the truth about what happened to her and her friend or continue living in silence and let the towns folk deal with her as they see fit.

I flew through this book. I loved how clues to the mystery were given in bits here and there and you don't get the whole picture until the end. It is written in a semi-diary type style, no actual chapters, so one part may be a paragraph or two and the next a page or two which worked well.I found it very interesting how now that Judith cannot speak the towns folk seem to think she is suddenly mentally disabled even though they knew that she wasn't before her disappearance. It was really sad to see how the lack of communication led people she had know her whole life to suddenly treat her so badly.

Quote:
“There is a curious comfort in letting go. After the agony, letting go brings numbness, and after the numbness, clarity. As if I can see the world for the first time, and my place in it, independent of you, a whole vista of what may be. Even if it is not grand or inspiring, it is real and solid, unlike the fantasy I've built around you. I will do this. I will triumph over you.”

Book #75 Shadows by Robin McKinley

Hmm where to start? Set in "New World" Shadows is a story that pits science against magic. Maggie is your typical seven-teen year old who has spent the last few years recovering from her father's death. Her world gets even more complicated when she meets her mother's soon-to-be-new husband Oldworlder, Val. Val is short and stocky but is surrounded by creepy, moving shadows that seem to respond to Maggie and even weirder.. only Maggie can see them.

Maggie has grown up being taught to trust only in science. Magic is scary and illegal, in fact the magic-carrying gene was spliced out two generations ago. However it soon becomes apparent not all children have gone through the gene removal process and Maggie finds some interesting new things out about herself and her group of friends. They even might be the key to saving the world as they know it.

In the end I liked Shadows but it was rough going in the beginning. This book is full of made up slang that is a bit hard to get through at times. Not the greatest but I thought the story was interesting, interesting enough that I would pick up the sequel if there was one (I can't even find any info on that, is this a stand alone book?). There definitely is enough material to continue the story but it didn't end on a cliff hanger or anything.

Quote:
“Slowly, painfully, I let go. It was like prying my own fingers off the edge of the cliff. And that hurt too-particularly the falling part, and not being sure what was at the bottom.

But I did know. Now was what was at the bottom. I was already there.”

Book #74 Allegiant (Divergent #3) by Veronica Roth

Wow. Wow. Wow.
This book was amazing, the series was amazing. So glad I read it. I was very excited when I read Divergent and that excitement carried over into Insurgent and then to Allegiant. Overall I did not have one complaint about the Divergent series.

**Major spoilers**
Allegiant was action packed all the way through and so much was revealed it made my head spin. Okay maybe with all that happens in Allegiant it really could have been spaced out over two books but still.  I did not see the bombshell of the city being a government controlled testing ground coming. I had no clue what was going on in the outside world but that caught me off guard (I do wonder what is taking place in the rest of the world while the U.S. is being run that way though). I know lots of people complained about the ending but even though I was shocked and cried like a baby over Tris' death it worked and it worked well.

So many couples in YA books survive these great catastrophes together and I am not saying Tris should have died to break the mold but it makes sense. Not everyone can survive these great missions and impossible odds. Trust me I wanted the happy ending too and I still tear up when I think of Tris dying. I am glad the story didn't stop there though and we got to see what life after the fact was like for Tobias. That part where he is talking about wanting to look at Caleb because he is so hungry for just one last glimpse of Tris... heartbreaking.

If you haven't read what Veronica Roth said about the ending herself, you should. I think it really helps shed some light on why Tris died:
On the ending of Allegiant

Trailer for the movie, which looks great and Theo James makes one good looking Four:
Official Divergent Trailer

Quote:
“There are so many ways to be brave in this world. Sometimes bravery involves laying down your life for something bigger than yourself, or for someone else. Sometimes it involves giving up everything you have ever known, or everyone you have ever loved, for the sake of something greater.

But sometimes it doesn't.

Sometimes it is nothing more than gritting your teeth through pain, and the work of every day, the slow walk toward a better life.

That is the sort of bravery I must have now.”

Book #73 Revealed by P.C. and Kristin Cast

I wasn't going to write anything about this book since it is #11 in a series and I really don't like writing about individual books in a series BUT.... I was very excited for this book and ended up pretty disappointed by it.

**Spoilers** I think the overall story line was fine but the execution was just lacking in general. The first few chapters felt like an after school special with Zoey's band of friends being so nice and agreeing on everything. You would think I would have been relived when Zoey started having anger issues and lashing out at those closest to her but it was just too much. This group of polar opposites and clashing personalities goes from sickeningly sweet togetherness to ignoring the serious issues boiling over in their leader? Hmm

The infamous Neferet is back with nothing but revenge on the mind but, except for one exciting moment in the beginning,  her storyline is focused on her getting back into her physical form. So even though you are excited by what her return will bring to the group, not much happens at all. A little back story on Neferet... her in the present day reconnecting with the darkness... all very not exciting.

Don't get me wrong there were some parts I enjoyed quite a bit: drunk Aurox, Stark talking to a drunk Aurox, Zoey and Aurox in the cafeteria... but that just isn't enough. I feel like the plot line is repeating and we desperately need some new material in here. After reading eleven books and with only one more book still due in the series I am going to hang in there and read that last one when it comes out and hope wholeheartedly for some kind of redemption.

Book #72 Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

I'm just going to start off by saying I liked this book so much better than Gone Girl.

This is the story of thirty-two year old Libby Day. When she was seven her teen aged brother was convicted of the murders of their mother and two sisters, somehow Libby escaped the carnage. In fact Libby herself even testified against her brother and had always felt 100% secure in what she heard and saw that night. Well that is until Libby starts running out of money and agrees to do some meet and greets with the Kill Club to earn some extra cash. Turns out this Kill Club believes that big brother Ben is innocent and in fact the evidence against him doesn't line up as neatly as Libby thought it did.

Dark Places is well written like Gone Girl but this one felt much more believable to me. I thought it was suspenseful and mysterious, I honestly had a very hard time guessing just what was going to happen. I am very curious to see how Sharp Objects compares in this line up.

Quotes:
“When I was fourteen, I thought a lot about killing myself—it’s a hobby today, but at age fourteen it was a vocation. On a September morning, just after school started, I’d gotten Diane’s .44 Magnum and held it, babylike, in my lap for hours. What an indulgence it would be, to just blow off my head, all my mean spirits disappearing with a gun blast, like blowing a seedy dandelion apart. But I thought about Diane, and her coming home to my small torso and a red wall, and I couldn’t do it. It’s probably why I was so hateful to her, she kept me from what I wanted the most.”