The Rest of Us Just Live Here - Patrick Ness

Title: The Rest of Us Just Live Here
Author: Patrick Ness
Published: Walker Books, August 2015
Genre: YA, Social Issues, Sci-Fi
My rating: 5/5 

Amazon says “Award-winning writer Patrick Ness's bold and irreverent novel powerfully asks what if you weren't the Chosen One? The one who's supposed to fight the zombies, or the soul-eating ghosts, or whatever this new thing is, with the blue lights and the death? What if you were like Mikey? Who just wants to graduate and go to prom and maybe finally work up the courage to ask Henna out before someone goes and blows up the high school. Again. Because sometimes there are problems bigger than this week's end of the world and sometimes you just have to find the extraordinary in your ordinary life. Even if your best friend might just be the God of mountain lions... ”

QUOTE
“Look, some more stuff happens that evening...but nothing so important that I have to go on about it. Just remember, please, most of that stuff is in the past. It isn't the story I want to tell. At all.
You needed to know it, but for the rest of this, I'm choosing my own story.
Because if you can't do that, you might as well just give up.”

WHAT I THOUGHT

MY FIRST FIVE STAR REVIEW!

Let me start by saying that the Chaos Walking series firmly positioned Patrick Ness as, without a shadow of a doubt, one of my favourite authors; The Knife of Never Letting Go is the first book I recommend in any conversation about books. The Rest of Us absolutely in no way let me down. 

This book is essentially somewhat of a satire of YA paranormal romance/sci-fi novels. Each chapter begins with a brief, maybe 100 word, update on whats going on with the “indie kids” (one of whom is called Satchel, which never stops being funny). These updates tell the kind of story you'd see in a book/film like I Am Number Four or some other paranormal romance novel. The so-called “indie kids” are the protagonists of those sorts of stories who must figure out a way to save the day; the kids to whom the aliens show themselves, with whom they share a life-altering love, and against whom they wage a war that threatens the world. The protagonists of our story, however, are just the kids who live in the town; who see all of these things happening but have enough to deal with in their day-to-day lives without having to deal with the vampires, the aliens, and the Gods who decide to take a trip down to earth during their senior year. They are us.

I think I'd assumed that this book was for a younger audience; judging by the blurb alone it could be. But these characters are complex and beautiful and tackling some very grown up issues. The book is written in the first person (often risky, but it works here) from the perspective of Mikey; a 17 year old boy battling crippling anxiety and OCD. We meet his best friend Jared, an openly gay demigod who goes by his middle name as he tries to come to terms with everything that comes with being a gay demigod (he is the grandson of the Goddess of Cats!); his older sister Mel, a recovering anorexic; and Henna, mixed race missionaries' daughter and the object of Mikey's somewhat unrequited love (a love that, at times, verges on an ugly kind of obsession and temporarily turns Mikey into a bit of a dick). They have their baggage, both individually and together, but my goodness do they provide each other with an almost enviable support system. 

It's the kind of concept that had the potential to really not work; very few writers could have pulled it off. In its concept there is very little action in this book; it actively chooses to tell the story of the people with somewhat ordinary lives rather than the ones to whom the action happens. If you're waiting for the story to get going, it won't. That is not the point. This is not a Sci-Fi book about an alien invasion; it is a book about friendship, both its ups and its downs and all of the hiccups in between. It's about loyalty, and love, and family, and the kinds of struggles that need to be addressed more often, particularly in books both for and about young people. It all just happens to go on while some creatures from another world decide to visit Earth for some light invasion. You cannot read this book and not see yourself in one of the characters; or see you and your friends in the relationships Patrick Ness so beautifully and delicately portrays. You cannot read this book and not see the comment being made: the adults in this book brush aside the strange goings on among the young people in the town in much the same way that they tend to brush aside the pressures and struggles of young people as inconsequential. It required wit and humour and a heavy dose of sensitivity and I think Patrick Ness just about got that right.

It cannot go unsaid that this is a gorgeous book. I'd had every intention of waiting for it to come out in paperback before I saw it in Waterstones with its yellow spayed edges and artsy cover design and I couldn't risk the paperback copy not being as stunning. It also includes a print version of the cover exclusive to Waterstones which is pretty cool. I absolutely encourage you, if you're going to read this book (which you definitely should) please, please, please don't get the ebook version. I know it's cheaper and less cumbersome but I promise that you will not regret buying a hard copy. It is a book lover's dream!

As you can probably tell, I would absolutely, most definitely recommend this book to everyone of any age. Honestly the only bad thing I could say about it is that he maybe skims over Mel's anorexia a bit too often - it feels like a bigger comment should've been made on it. But our narrator Mikey sets out that this isn't the story he wishes to dwell on so can I really be annoyed? I'm going to go with no. I'm sure there are people who'd disagree but I believe this book deserves my first 5/5!

Thanks for reading,
Naomi Joy x

Wool (Silo Saga 1) by Hugh Howey

 

Book: Wool

Author: Hugh Howey

Published: Arrow, April 2013

Genre: Sci-Fi, Dystopia

My rating: 4.5/5

Amazon says: "In a ruined and hostile landscape, in a future few have been unlucky enough to survive, a community exists in a giant underground silo.

Inside, men and women live in an enclosed life full of rules and regulations, of secrets and lies.

To live, you must follow rules. But some don't. These are the dangerous ones; these are the people who dare to hope and dream, and who infect others with their optimism.

Their punishment is simple and deadly. They are allowed outside.

Jules is one of these people. She may well be the last."

WHAT I THOUGHT:

This was by far the best book I read all summer (I started writing this post a long time ago as you can see).
Confusingly, this book has been billed as the "science fiction version of Fifty Shades of Grey". This is not at all down the to content. The book was originally self-published as a short story, only expanded on after great interest from readers. That, I promise, is where the similarities end.

It seems Wool has a penchant for being wrongly compared to other books. My copy had a review by the Sunday Times on the front claiming that this was "The next Hunger Games" but that really doesn't do it justice and I feel is a misleading statement in terms of the target audience. Much as I loved The Hunger Games this book is similar in the same way that it is similar to every dystopian novel: it depicts a really rather morbid and morose dystopian future. THG is a YA book and no offence to Suzanne Collins (I've read the series numerous times) but it is written in that way. From the first page I knew I was going to love Wool; the first line hooked me but it also told me the audience was going to be somewhat different to THG: "The children were playing while Holston climbed to his death; he could hear them squealing as only happy children do.". It was just dark enough, just intriguing enough for me to really want to read on. It was, in no way, aimed at the same audience as THG. 

The book is so well written, I read it in just 2 days I was so gripped by Jules' story and the history behind the silos. As with most dystopian novels the question lies: how did they get to this point? We know what it used to be like but what happened to send everyone underground? The question remains through most of the book and it keeps you reading, keeps you wanting more. The beginning is perhaps a little slow but there's a story building and you know it's worth sticking around for. Jules' arrival and the subsequent collapse of Silo Eighteen turn it around and the pace of the book quickens.
The characters are engaging. Jahns and Marnes are older characters for this sort of genre but it works well, they are well-rounded and well-built characters. Jules injects a little youth and pace to the story. She is a headstrong but likeable female protagonist for a change and I quite liked the fact that she didn't have a love interest for a lot of the book (Lukas wasn't an entirely necessary character addition and wasn't as developed as a character as many of the others but I understand that perhaps it would help Jules from going insane with only Solo for company).

Overall I thought this was a fantastic read. Wonderfully crafted, it is a well-written, gripping novel with a unique and yet familiar concept. I would highly recommend it, it is definitely well worth a read. I look forward to reading the rest of the trilogy!

Thanks for reading, feel free to comment :) 
Naomi Joy xx

The Circle by Dave Eggers

Title: The Circle

Author: Dave Eggers

Published: Penguin Books, 2014

Genre: Sci-Fi

My rating: 2.5/5

The Circle runs everything - all your internet activity in one easy, safe and visible place. No wonder it is now the world's most powerful and influential company. So when Mae Holland lands a job at it's glittering California campus, she knows she's made it. But the more her ideals and ambitions become aligned with those of the Circle the closer she comes to discovering a sinister truth at the heart of an organisation seeking to remake the world in its image...

WHAT I THOUGHT:

Many of the reviews emblazoned on and inside the book remark on how unputdownable this book was. Unfortunately, I can't help but think that this was partly down the the fact the there were NO CHAPTERS making it difficult to find a place to stop. I've never found chapters to be such a pivotal part of a book before but I found the pace of this book a little hard to get along with without the break up.

Instead of chapters Eggers has divided the book into 3 (though there are no hints that this will happen until you hit book 2 over halfway though and book 3 with about 10 pages to go) and I think it's best if I tackle this review book by book.

Book I

This book started strongly. Mae, our protagonist, and her life are just about lacking enough to be believable and relatable and she becomes a rather interesting character. You explore the Circle with her and discover as she does. Francis at this point is an intriguing possibility, not at all the kind of guy you expect your protagonist to end up with but good enough for now. Then, as if just on cue, in walks Kalden; a man suitably mysterious and exciting. The book as a whole is praised for it's chilling plausibility and Book I makes this praise seem rather suitable. Companies like Google and PayPal are now seemingly inescapable when it comes to internet activity so an overarching, far-reaching company that owns and oversees all internet activity is a very strong premise for a book and there were so many more routes that Eggers could have gone down to keep his book plausible and gripping.

Book II

When Mae goes "transparent" things, I feel, start to go downhill. We take leaps and bounds toward implausibility and Eggers loses the strongest thing he had going for him and his book. Mae becomes rather a dislikable human being in her over-eagerness to accept the Circle into every aspect of her life. She becomes almost entirely incapable of individual thought and her character becomes depressingly one-dimensional. I became almost entirely uninterested in Mae's story and I found I only carried on reading in the hope that maybe things might turn around.

Book III

There's little to say about book III as it is rather short. Book II ends and you are hopeful that Mae has found a tiny scrap of integrity within herself but unfortunately all faith is lost in Mae and with it all the progress and headway Eggers made in Book I.

My greatest issue with this book is the fact that it relies far to much on people's ability to lose their cynicism and, as a cynic myself, I find this very difficult to find plausible. While it has been shown that there are people who will latch on to any new craze I wonder if as few people would question this kind of organisation encroaching on every single aspect of their lives, implanting chips into their children and peeking in on every moment of their day.

This book is nothing if not thought-provoking I will give Eggers that. It is a very interesting premise and while I feel he failed to exploit it as well as was possible I do believe that the route he took could spark some very interesting debate about privacy and the right to anonymity. Despite the negative tone of this review, on the whole I would recommend this book to anyone after something different and thought-provoking as it really is a great idea for a book but it is definitely not one I will be revisiting myself.

Thanks for reading and feel free to comment :)

Naomi Joy xx

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

Genre: Action/Adventure/Sci-Fi
Directors: Anthony Russo & Joe Russo
Starring: Chris Evans, Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie
UK Release Date: 20th March 2014

My rating: 4/5

So I actually saw this before I saw The Amazing Spider-Man 2 which I have already reviewed but as I had plans to see it again I thought I'd wait to post so it was fresh in the memory.

It's nigh impossible to write this review without any kind of plot spoilers so *****SPOILER ALERT***** just in case.

What I'll say to start off is that I knew the identity of the Winter Soldier long before the film came out. Not to say it ruined the film for me because it didn't but being the keen fan that I am I read all about it months before the film was released. I just thought I'd mention it because I guess it means my viewing was maybe a little skewered? I don't know.

Anyway. As you've probably heard the film is great. It is the ultimate conspiracy theory and has possibly one of Marvel's strongest story-lines. Throughout the film we see Steve Rodgers aka Captain America (Chris Evans) struggle to acclimatise with modern society while sticking to his really rather strong morals. He is now a fully fledged S.H.I.E.L.D. agent but he's struggling with it; questioning whether being a superhero-for-hire is really for him. When he's left only able to trust the morally questionable, killer-for-hire Natasha Romanov (Scarlett Johansson) it's no wonder he struggles and when the identity of the Winter Soldier is revealed to him in the midst of it all his world is well and truly rocked. Sam Wilson aka the Falcon (Anthony Mackie) is almost a flashback to when Steve Rodgers was just Steve Rodgers, just an ordinary man willing to do anything to make a difference and with the end of the film teasing that he'll be a relatively permanent fixture by the Captain's side I'm interested to see where his character goes (especially as his wings were destroyed and I'm sure he said they were the only ones left). 

There are the witty one-liners that are now a staple feature in the new phase of Marvel films and some not-so-subtle teasers of potential future spin-off films (Dr. Stephen Strange for instance) this gritty storyline really is one for both the comic fans and those who are just looking for a film to watch. It is one of the few superhero movies that is actually set in quite a recognisable reality. The freedom vs. security debate of S.H.I.E.L.D. is relatable to all. Obviously the film delivers on the action front and the Winter Soldier gives Captain America a worthy opponent. Their fight scenes are scrappy and (thankfully) relatively CGI-free! They're honest and gritty fights of evenly matched heroes that no one can really complain about.

The key role of Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow kind of made me feel sorry for Hawkeye who, outside of the Avengers, has only found himself in a cameo role in Thor. I'm sure thats just me and a love for Jeremy Renner but there's only so often I can hear Natasha/Natalia Romanov's I don't know and don't want to know who I am, my past doesn't define me, I'm going clean spiel before I start to stop caring.

There is only really one thing that I came out still questioning and its the character of Batroc. Now Captain America is a super-soldier, we all saw that happen in the first film, so we know that he is super strong and most people tend to go down after the first hit. Batroc however was really quite resilient, springy and remarkably good at avoiding death and I feel we weren't given a reason why or how that was possible. It's a small problem really but if anyone saw something I missed feel free to drop me a comment.

Marvel have a lot of clearing up to do before The Avengers 2 of both S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Winter Soldier issue and I quite look forward to seeing how they're going to do it.

After a Quicksilver teaser in both the Captain America 2 (for Avengers 2) and the new Spider-man (for X-Men) credits I'm also intrigued to see how Marvel is going to handle this character-off. Personally I'm backing Evan Peters over Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Angus, Thongs. That's all I'll say.)

Thanks for reading and feel free to comment :)

Naomi Joy x