SAFE - Dawn Husted

One of the cool perks of writing a book review blog is that sometimes new authors reach out to you and ask you to read and review their book. How cool is that? For a book nerd like me, it’s pretty awesome. I was recently contacted for such a task recently by Dawn Husted to review her book, SAFE. This book is a dystopian, Young Adult novel which can be a pretty intimidating genre to bust in to right now with the HUGE hits of late like The Hunger Games and Divergent series.

Many years ago, massive earthquakes devastated the world. Survivors settled The Colony to try and rebuild a safe and stable place to live. It is here where everything in society is carefully planned out and keeps its residents under close scrutiny which is all necessary to keep civilization alive. Original settlers were injected with a vaccine to keep them free of contagious and fatal diseases. This vaccine eventually became integrated into everyone’s DNA, which President Falcon says helps keep their colony thriving.

SAFE follows the journey of Penny and James whose worlds are flipped upside down one day when Penny is taken from her home and told that she is sick. She faces two options – either exile or execution. In haste, Penny learns about a sister, Madeline, she never knew she had and her father says she must go find and rescue her. She and her boyfriend James make an attempt to escape the Colony and find her sister but must overcome many obstacles on their quest to find Madeline.

Overall, the story line was captivating and had some good twists and turns that you don’t see coming. It took me a little while to get in to the book as I found the language in the beginning a bit disjointed and wordy at times. Penny and James are both extremely likable characters that are easy to root for from beginning to end.

Since I don’t do spoilers, I won’t say what happens at the end but I did think the story ended a bit abruptly. Sudden endings seemed to be a bit of a theme throughout this story as I felt like many of the conflicts that Penny and James faced were resolved a bit too easily and swiftly. I’m not sure though if this book is the first in a series, so that may explain the sudden ending to the story.

In the end, this was a quick read that I think could be a good introduction for young readers into dystopian novels. If you are looking for something to read in a couple of days that has lots of action and interesting characters - go check this one out!

Rating: Good 7 out of 10

Fifty Shades of Grey - E.L. James

I actually read this book a couple of years ago when the hype was all over the place. I had an idea of what the book was about and decided to read it mostly out of curiosity due to all the media hype rather than true interest. Either way - I read it. Ever since the movie was released, I really went back and forth on whether or not to write a review on this book. I have some pretty strong opinions regarding this entire thing but didn't know if THIS blog was really the right outlet.

In the end, I decided that I would review the book as a book and attempt to leave (most) of my own humble opinions out of it.

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past couple of years, I probably don't need to go into great detail about the plot line of this book. Plain Jane meets dashing millionaire. Millionaire has some dark, deep rooted issues to sort out. Jane falls in love and thinks she can fix said millionaire. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

OK, in all seriousness though - here you go. Fifty Shades of Grey is the first of 3 (yes, there are 3) books that tell the story of Anastasia Steele and her relationship with business mogul, Christian Grey. Ana first meets Christian while standing in for her friend who was supposed to interview him for an article. Due to the instant attraction and Christian's intimidating confidence, Ana stumbles through the interview and thinks she will never hear from him ever again.

SPOILER ALERT - Christian finds Ana's awkwardness completely endearing and ends up pursuing her. On their date, Christian mentions that Ana will need to sign a non-disclosure agreement which prevents Ana from discussing anything they do together with anyone. She agrees to sign it. Eventually, Christian takes her to his playroom which is full of BDSM gear. There is yet more paperwork to sign and it is at this point that Christian informs Ana that their relationship will be strictly a sexual one - no romance.

Ana does not agree to sign this contract right away which results in a somewhat flirtatious, yet confusing exchange of emails between her and Christian. When Ana finally meets with Christian in person about the contract, she becomes too overwhelmed and runs away. She does not see him again until her college graduation. Ana has had a change of heart by this time and agrees to sign the contract. The story continues with a confusing tug between the agreed upon sexually dominant relationship and Christian's lavish gifts and meals with his parents. Eventually, Ana asks Christian to push the limits and show her how extreme this contractual relationship could be. He agrees. Ana then decides this relationship won't work. Cue exit.

I'm not even going to sugar coat this - beyond the obvious psychological issues that both main characters have to deal with, the mental/emotional manipulations and physical abuse undertones that this entire plot brings to light - this book is terrible. It comes across as having been written by a hormonal teenager who really doesn't have the best grasp of the English language. I understand that this books is fiction, but to me, neither the plot nor the characters seem to have any realistic qualities and this is concerning. Some people may read this story and believe that it describes love and romance when it couldn't be farther from the truth. THIS IS FICTION, PEOPLE. Everything fits entirely too perfectly together - the characters are too perfect (even in their flaws) and the entire setting is too perfect.

I finished the book - I always finish every book no matter how terrible it is. I will say this though - I did not read the next 2. I couldn't even bring myself to do it. So, if you are reading this post and think there are some redeeming qualities in the next 2 books that might make me change my mind, I'm all ears. Or eyes. This is a computer after all.

Rating: Terrible 1 out of 10

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer

This novel is set in the aftermath of 9/11 and is narrated by nine year old Oskar Schell, who lost his father in the World Trade Center terrorist attacks. Little Oskar struggles with the death of his father and suffers from depression, insomnia and panic attacks. Oskar is a bit of an outcast with not many friends his own age. He is incredibly clever and very trusting of strangers. I'll admit that right off the bat, I was very nervous for this young boy to set off on a journey alone through New York City, but it ended up being fun!

The journey really begins for Oskar after he finds a key hidden inside an envelope in his father's closet. The envelope has the word "Black" written on the outside, but that is the only clue. Curious about the key, Oskar sets out to find its lock, hoping it will bring him closer to his father. He looks up the name "Black" in the phone book, and sets off on his journey in alphabetical order. Oskar meets many people along this journey including Abby Black, a man known only as "the renter", and his elderly neighbor, Mr. A Black. All of these characters help paint a very colorful narrative of this important journey of discovery for Oskar.

Many months into his journey, Abby Black confesses to Oskar that she might be able to help him find the key's owner after all and sends Oskar to see her ex-husband, William Black. William Black helps Oskar discover the true origin of the key. I'm not much into spoilers - so you'll have to go read the book to find out what happens!

This novel has a parallel narrative that is told through letters written by Oskar's grandparents. This narrative eventually meets up with the main story line and eventually helps Oskar understand his roots and his importance in the world.

Overall, I was very torn with this novel. On the one hand, the story line was clever and engaging. Oskar has a very unique view of the world and Foer really brings a child's imagination to life through his words and descriptions. On the other hand, the narrative left me a bit out of breath trying to keep up. Perhaps that was the point as I would imagine it's difficult for any adult to keep up with a 9 year old.

In the end, I think Foer did a nice job of taking a serious and difficult topic and putting a rather whimsical spin on it in order to make its point. It's definitely worth picking up and joining Oskar on his journey through New York.

Rating: Fair 6 out of 10