Across the Universe by Beth Revis
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

*WARNING: SPOILERS*

Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone - one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship - tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.

Holy f*** this book was amazing. First of all, the cover is absolutely beautiful. I'm not sure why they changed it to that weird metal-y thing, but I don't like that new cover. I'm really glad I read it in it's original cover, because it'a absolutely beautiful.

The actual story was sooooo cool. The idea itself I found pretty cool. Cryogenically frozen so that you could be transported to terraform a planet called Centauri-Earth that would take 300 years to reach? That's cool. I love the way the pain of getting frozen was described. Yeah, thats a bit morbid of me, but I appreciated the detailed description. It made everything feel so much more real.



First, the Season. Like ew. That is so ridiculously gross, I can't even. Yeah, it does really show the lack of humanity aboard Godspeed, the way they have a set time to do it because they couldn't handle doing it whenever, yeah, but having to picture a bunch of people having sex literally everywhere? That's really gross. Nuh-uh.



And oh my god, the Plague. The fact that there wasn't a plague at all and they managed to cover it up scares me a bit. All history before then was wiped out. And then the fact that the ship had been running for way over 300 years, and would continue to run for another 100 or so years if it doesn't break down? Oh god. And the cryo level itself is completely hidden. And the chemicals being released into the water supply is causing people to lose their...humanity, I guess...except for the people who are supposedly crazy, who are on meds--they don't get affected. I don't know, it just bothered me how sick people were on the ship, specifically Elder.

And then the part about the chemicals in the water, and then everything is just...I can't think anymore. Elder, though. Hiding a plague, drugging inhabitants, controlling sex, and making people believe that they were close to their destination, and showing them fake stars that they could tell their children about. He's sick. Like the thing about stars. Harley suicided because of the stars, so he could be with them. And he painted himself with a background of stars before he died. And it makes me sad. I think the stars were the saddest part to me. What if we, who are...accustomed t stars were to be put on a Godspeed? We wouldn't have real stars, we would only have the occasional glimpse of fake stars. I suppose stars are taken for granted.

And then there's who whole part about who unplugged Amy and the rest of the people and the whole Elder, Amy, Doc, Eldest, Orion thing. I really couldn't figure out who I should suspect as the unplugger. Which is really good, I think. The author kept things suspenseful, First, I was thinking Eldest. Then I was thinking Doc. Then Orion. The Eldest, Doc, Orion, and so on. Eldest just seems like the kind of a****** to do it. Orion was just suspicious. And Doc...I guess he was suspicious too. And then BOOM, it was Orion, but Elder was the one who unplugged Amy, 'cause he thought she was cool looking, because she was different. Mind blown.



My review is going everywhere. I literally can't even think. My thoughts are just everywhere, and I'm having trouble forming proper sentences, and proper thoughts. And putting everything into orderly paragraphs which all make sense, and pertain to their own topics. But they don't. Sorry. So I think I'm going to end it here. I feel like this turned out more like a rant than a review.



Basically, this book was absolutely fantastic. And I can't even think, it was really good. I was having so many mind blown moments, and so many "Holy s***, oh my god!!" moments. It was so good, and I couldn't figure out anything about who did anything until the end. It was like everything fell into place, every single moment in the book, every single piece came together. Plus, I was bracing myself for a really romantic book, but it wasn't even. It was like one or two kisses, and that's it. Added bonus!

- Mannytee



View all my reviews

Down on the Other Street by Jennifer Cie (Manali's Review)

Down On The Other Street: Volume I by Jennifer Cie
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Long winded, unemployed, and timid, on the first date Brendan Bloom is already in love. Comfortably arched over his body, Ryan contemplates murder. Cold, necklace gleaming against the pale tint of her collarbone, the passenger could have mercy. Not a little black book, but a faded love letter out from under the sheets. Some romances ignite on sight, others flare at the base of waterless tubs soaked in agitation. Rooted in the South, this collection of short stories delivers five electric confessions of love, sexuality, and identity across time.

To be honest here, I think this could have been a fantastic book, had it not been for all the confusion. Maybe it's just the lack of experience talking, or maybe it was just me being dumb, but I was quite confused. It was like a bunch of unrelated stories put into one book. I thought eventually, something would connect them all. Maybe something did connect them all, but once again, my lack of experience in reading blinded me, and prevented me from fully understanding. After that, I just chose to believe that the book was a compilation of stories. I'm not sure if I'm right in believing that, but apparently I am, according to the synopsis.



Other than the whole thing where I couldn't figure out whether it was one story or a compilation of stories, the confusion was mostly due to just not getting what was happening. A lot of the time, I couldn't figure out who's perspective it was in, or the sexuality of the person (were they straight, gay, etc.) or the gender of the person. Other times, I just couldn't picture anything in my head--the image wasn't really clear. On top of all that, I couldn't decipher the title. I couldn't really figure out why the title was the title.



I think most of the problem is that I was the reader of this book. If someone else had read the book, the review would probably be a lot more meaningful, because they would have had more understanding than I do. But it's just me. And I didn't get the book completely, so there's not much for me to say.

However, those problems aside, if I were judging the stories on their own, they were actually pretty good. Yeah, a bit sexual, but that's okay. The stories themselves were good. Different time periods with the same theme: accepting yourself, accepting who you love. Or rather, the struggle of acceptance.

I've nothing left to say now. I've explained my confusion, and I can't really say anything worth anything because I was confused by the book. This book did have it's good parts, and I'm sure I would've found the book a lot more enjoyable had I understood it. But it wasn't bad. I was just confused.

- Mannytee

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The Giver by Lois Lowry (Jasper's Review)

Awesome new cover of The Giver

My Rating: 5/5 PERFECTION

Book info:

240 Pages

First Published in 1993

Lois Lowry's  The Giver is the quintessential dystopian novel, followed by its remarkable companions, Gathering Blue, Messenger, and Son.

Jonas's world is perfect. Everything is under control. There is no war or fear of pain. There are no choices. Every person is assigned a role in the community. When Jonas turns 12 he is singled out to receive special training from The Giver. The Giver alone holds the memories of the true pain and pleasure of life. Now, it is time for Jonas to receive the truth. There is no turning back.

When a book leaves you breathless, you know that it has to be awesome. OK HOLY CRAP THIS BOOK WAS GOOD. You see, I've been hearing people fan over this book for a really long time already and I just never got around to reading it. I kinda thought that maybe it was a little over hyped? But no. No the raving over this book that people did was definitely not over hyped at all. It's completely and utterly worth the 12.20 I bought it with. Here let me give you some gifs

Ok. So basically, this book is about a pseudo-perfect dystopian society. I use the words psuedo-perfect because, no one know anything. Nothing about pain, death, war not even snow. The only people that know are the Giver and the Receiver. 

“I liked the feeling of love,' [Jonas] confessed. He glanced nervously at the speaker on the wall, reassuring himself that no one was listening. 'I wish we still had that,' he whispered. 'Of course,' he added quickly, 'I do understand that it wouldn't work very well. And that it's much better to be organized the way we are now. I can see that it was a dangerous way to live.' 

...'Still,' he said slowly, almost to himself, 'I did like the light they made. And the warmth.” 

They don't even know about colour. Somehow they believe that without anything to make people different, everything would be better. And somehow, I found myself wondering at this intricate tale that Lois Lowry has weaved and I thought to myself that maybe it would make a better world. That woman is really amazing.

Let's talk about the characters for a while (the pictures I'll be using are from the movie casting)

Jonas

Jonas is the awesome bad ass character in the book, there's always one. He's like Katniss from the Hunger Games... but smarter, nicer and better :D I actually love the casting for Jonas in the movie because that's exactly what I picture him as. He's tall but not too tall, skinny but still has some figure. If I were a girl, I'd be swooning over him. I mean have you seen that face? ;D OK back to the character. I think the way that Jonas started out as really rule abiding, that he wouldn't even think about breaking a rule. But then when he progressed, he turned into a bad ass rebel that does whatever the hell he wants. So AWESOME. I also kinda hated him though. He's pretty naive and stupid but at least he grew out of that...

The Giver

The Giver was a kinda love hate thing for me. First off I understand that he is basically smarter than everything that has ever lived before, but I don't think that he really has to be so condescending... He's just so cynical. So I guess I really didn't like him.

This book was really short. Too short. But it got to the point and I love that with books. The book was about the same length as a short chapter book that you would read when you were 6. But that's really all that I hated about the book.

I loved a lot more than I hated though. I loved that this is one of the original dystopian novels, that it isn't like the dystopians written in the past 5 years. Where the plot just gets repeated book after book, or in books like Divergent, that gets so much hype that you just have to read it. But when you do read it, you find that the book is actually really, really bad. I mean look at Tris. She's such a pushover. And she has basically no personality. But The Giver is so much better than that. the people in this book, lack the terrible character writing that's basically in every dystopian novel, the people are actually believable. Like, Jonas, The Giver, Lily, Fiona, they all make sense. I think a lot of dystopian authors get carried away making the characters all "futuristic" that they forget to make them human. And that is definitely not a problem in this book.

What else can I say about this book other than the fact that it's absolutely perfect. The characters, the plot, the everything is just the epitome of modern YA Fiction.

I really suggest you to read this book. Especially since the movie is coming out in 1 day!!!! SO EXCITED! Seriously. Read. The. Book. I hope I can get my hands on a copy of Gathering Blue. I am praying right now that this series doesn't degrade like Divergent and the Hunger Games did.

Reviews! (Or The Lack Thereof)

Hey everyone!

So as you have seen, we haven't been writing reviews at the pace that we usually do, and we hope that you do understand, that an unforeseen circumstance has delayed our reviews, and that they will be delayed by a couple weeks, though they are definitely being written!

Thanks,
-The Last Page at Midnight Crew

Secret at Haney Field - R.M. Clark (Brandon's Review)

First of, I'd like to say that it was a pleasure to read this book!

Now onto the review!

Twelve-year-old April O'Day's summer has gotten off to a flying start. As the new bat retriever for the Harpoons, her hometown's minor-league team, she's fetching bats and doling out great advice to players and coaches alike. In a word, she's becoming indispensable. But mysterious things are happening at Haney Field, which April and her best friend—and fellow baseball enthusiast—Darren Plummer are determined to uncover. As they quickly learn, this is no ordinary season. In fact, it's a whole new ballgame!

Review
I would like to start off by saying that this book is a great book! The character development was at a steady pace, coupled by the hint of time traveling, and history that is mentioned by the book, really does make it an all-around good book. I really enjoyed reading this book, (if you couldn't tell), and even appreciated the glossary, to refresh myself on the terms!

-Brandon

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell (Jasper's Review)

My Rating: 4.9/5

“Eleanor & Park reminded me not just what it’s like to be young
and in love with a girl, but also what it’s like to be young and in love with a book.”
— John Green, author of The Fault in Our Stars,
for The New York Times Book Review
“Bono met his wife in high school,” Park says.

“So did Jerry Lee Lewis,” Eleanor answers.

“I’m not kidding,” he says.

“You should be,” she says, “we’re 16.”

“What about Romeo and Juliet?”

“Shallow, confused, then dead.”

“I love you,” Park says.

“Wherefore art thou,” Eleanor answers.

“I’m not kidding,” he says.

“You should be.”

Set over the course of one school year in 1986, Eleanor & Park is the story of two star-crossed misfits – smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try. When Eleanor meets Park, you’ll remember your own first love – and just how hard it pulled you under.

OMG. 

   Oh. My. God. I have no reactions for this book... Haha... no, just kidding. But that gif really describes what I looked like after reading that book. Right now I feel really conflicted because 1) I love Rainbow Rowell for writing this modern holy grail of YA Romance but 2) I really hated her for making the book end that way. Believe me. You know what I'm talking about if you've already read this book. So let's get right into the review.

Part 1: The Characters

Fan art from the Special Edition of Eleanor & Park

Eleanor...

         What can I say? I'm in love :D She's the red head in the pictures above. I really don't get her. Sh'es one of those people that you wish that you would meet some time in your life but you never really do. She protects basically everyone before she thinks about protecting herself, she will do anything for the people that she loves; including going through a complete makeover courtesy of Park's mom...

Park...

       He's a complete idiot. He's probably one of those people that wouldn't know what to do even if the instructions were right in front of him. I guess, it's his idiocy that makes him "cute." That and his good looks of course... Anyways, Park is kinda sweet if you look beyond his joking surface. He loves Eleanor with al his heart and I guess that's really all that matters. I know that kinda sounds sappy but really... THIS IS A ROMANCE. WHAT DO YOU EXPECT?

Part 2: The Book

 

Excuse me while I go laugh and cry at the same time. I mean like WHAT THE HELL WAS SHE THINKING. This book is more than just a romance. It's a lot more. Its a Romance, Mystery, Thriller, wait. There's a book genre for this. *Don't fail me now brain* ITS A TRAGICOMEDY *proud of myself* Yes. It was a Tragicomedy. It makes you cry and laugh and die a little reading every page. Reading through Eleanor's pain was really something. How she managed to survive astounds me. And that SOB step father of hers... Just, no. I don't think I could read through that again. As a guy, I should be saying that this book is for little girls and that I didn't cry at all. But as a book reviewer, I'm going to tell you that the little tears just came out of my eyes. I think that the last chapter from the book was the last nail in the coffin containing my heart. This book was just too damn good. Too. Damn. Good. 

Part 3: Bring on the firing squad!

Firstly, I would like to say sorry, not sorry, to all of those people that saw absolutely nothing wrong with the book. But I did see something wrong. Everything just felt kinda weird in the middle. I'm serious. Like, I get that the real "climax" of the book was supposed to be in the middle but... I kind of felt that was some what weak. I personally thought the book would have been perfectly fine skipping the middle calm period. I guess I'm just one of those people that kinda think that there really is no calm in the storm that is a relationship but maybe I'm a pessimist. But then again... Park getting beat up for Eleanor is cute.

Part 4: The Verdict

Read this book when you're happy and need to get a grip on life again. A perfect gift for all your air headed friends *cough cough*

-Jasper

A Rant from Mannytee about Fated

This is not a review. I haven't actually completed any books since Control. I actually have only read about two pages of this book since I finished Control. This is just my little post to let out my thoughts, in more common terms; a rant.




So I have recently been reading a book called Fated by Alison Noël (or as I like to call it, Fatted), and I have to say I'm incredibly disappointed. I originally wanted to read this book because it has a pretty cover. Yes, I do judge books by their covers, and I don't know many people who don't. Actually, I don't think I can name even one person who doesn't. The cover was absolutely beautiful, at least I thought so, so I decided to pick it up. I generally don't like pink, but the rest of the cover makes up for it. Crows flying around the edges, and a girl (who looks like Selena Gomez with a weird chin that looks lie it sticks out but is actually only covered by a shadow. Ha, ha.) who wears dream catcher earrings with very long feathers on them. The point is, the cover is beautiful. Oh, and 20 minutes ago, I discovered the yellow cover, which is also beautiful. It features the same girl, and some crows, it's just arranged a bit differently, with a different font and a different colour.






I think they're both quite pretty. I can't decide which cover I like better, though I suppose it doesn't matter.











A little bit of back story on my history with Fated: I originally started this book on the 6th of June. I then continued my attempt to read this book throughout half of June. Then I just gave up, read some other books. I rebooted my attempt to read this book, then started Control, which I completed within two days. (I still feel bad about reading other books while trying to read this one, but on the other hand, if I hadn't interrupted the reading of Fated, I would still have not read any books at all.) I am now back to reading Fated, and as I type out this rant, I have read exactly 76 pages. I am currently considering switching books again.


In my experiences, books with pretty covers tend to have a good plot and good writing. This book is not one of those books. Yes the writing is good, the plot is good, but it's too much and not enough. Too descriptive, too boring, not enough action, not enough awesomeness. It's ridiculous. I'm not even at page 100 and I'm bored to death. To be honest, I was bored to death before page 10. I may have to do a DNF review on this book. I'm determined to complete the book, but I'm seriously doubting my ability to forge through this utter boring-ness. The girl in this book just wants to describe everything. Like, she can't just say, I'm walking through a field and the dew is making my dress wet. No, she has to say, I'm gliding gracefully through a luscious green meadow, the damp grass making dark splotches on my dress with it's fresh dew. This didn't actually happen in the book, I'm just making up something as an example. But I find it irritating that every single sentence is so descriptive. Nothing is simple. It's just so ARRRGGGHHHHUGGGHHHHH. I'm trying to keep things PG...so sorry for that word that wasn't a word. It was just a sound of frustration in place of some swearing.

No offense, but this book is like the worst thing ever. I can't even fully explain how I feel about it. I had high hopes on this book,not only because of the cover, but because of the synopsis, and because of other people's rating on this book. I'm not quite sure what they were thinking rating it so high...I guess I shouldn't say that, because I haven't read even half of the book, and it's most likely going to get better throughout the book, but based on what I read, 4 stars is quite generous. I'm very frustrated. I don't know what to go with this book. I don't know whether I should keep trying, or just put it down until I can handle ultimate boring-ness.

This rant has gone on longer than I thought it would. I have so much more to say, but I think that if I continue, I would just start babbling. So I think I'm going to end it here. I'm considering doing a part 2 to this rant, just because I have so much to say. I'm going to keep trying for a bit, and if it doesn't go well, I'll come back with another (hopefully shorter) rant. See y'all later.

-Mannytee