Inside by Maria V. Snyder Review

Inside (Insiders #1-2), by Maria V. Snyder
Publication: February 21, 2012, by Harlequin Books
Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Dystopian, Science-Fiction
Pages: 600
Format: Paperback
Source: Purchased
Rating: /DNF

The world of Inside is simple. Do your job, stay out of the way and don't dream of anything better. Because as every Scrub knows, there are no other options.
Until Trella—the Queen of the Pipes, as some call her—gets involved with a revolution that will rock her world….
Trella was just doing a favor for a friend—her only friend. Hiding an injured man from the Pop Cops seemed easy enough—though dangerous. But then she discovered that the myths of Outside might be real….
Being Inside's hero only left Trella with more work. Ducking those responsibilities, she continued to explore her stark world—and found something she never expected. Strangers. From Outside…

*DNF @ 150 pages*

Man, I don't even know how to word this review. I hate DNFing a book, but when I have to, I feel like the whole event that has just passed was a catastrophe. And with Inside Out, my love for dystopian books are slowly fading away as this was a disaster-novel and there wasn't one thing that I liked about it. Shall we rant? We shall rant.

After this horrid rant, I know that you all will be waiting for me to completely shut up. But I just hate this and I've got enough. And the hilarious and funny thing is, I brought this on vacation and brought it home with me and I didn't get a chance to read it yet. And now I did, and it was a complete waste of time and a waste of luggage. *laughs* It would've been much better if I left this book there without giving it a chance. This dystopian novel's concept was something that I've never gone through before, and I'm telling you, I never will want to deal with anything like this ever again.

Once upon a time, in a disgusting dystopian world far away in my mind, there was an eerie world setting. And by eerie, I mean strange and weird, not in a good way. Queen of the Pipes, (the dumbest thing ever), was named Trella, and she was just doing a favour. Whoa. And by the way, the world is exactly what is pictured on the book cover, or at least that's what I saw it as. I pictured it like some bubbles where everyone travels through them and such. You call this dystopian? You say that this is a broken-down version of our world?

Our world will never become like some pipe-stuff. What the heck is that supposed to mean? I seriously don't know, and this setting frustrated me from the start. I wanted to bang my head on glass and throw this book into a paper-shredder. What the heck was this concept? Most of the book from what I read was all dialogue. 

And what was this dialogue about? Just the dumbest things. And I hated the plot and what the author was giving us from this. Nothing was happening, there was no action and since I got bored, I just had to let this go. And really, the way that time/age is broken up into some other timing scheme just confused me to death. I think that I prefer less info-dumping, and better pacing instead? Seriously, why try to make the impossible possible by switching things around from the way we live? What is the specialty of time being different than what we have today? No answers were made for those questions and it's not like we have a dilemma where the sequel will answer that question. It's supposed to help readers understand the world building, no?

Moving on, we then get into the characters. I simply couldn't connect to Trella as she was just a girl who thinks she special because she's royalty. She's a queen, BIG WHOP. It's not like she was doing anything for her people, really. And her people are named scrubs. Wow. *ignores the fact of that* And she was cold and unfriendly. Don't us readers want to read a point-of-view from a protagonist that's cool and lets readers know the answers to their world? Guess what... she already had begun to show her rebellious side which made no sense since we only got to the middle half of the first book. I seriously don't want to imagine what she had done next in the sequel, but I guess I'll never know.

I don't feel like bashing out this book any further, but let me tell you that there was no connection coming from me. For those haters (who think opposite of me), I'm glad that you've enjoyed this one. I'm surprised that it's not my kind of read that I'm able to connect to, and I wish I could've enjoyed it more since it's one of those older dystopias that have been out and released for a while now.

This is a read surely for people who: don't care about good protagonists, like info-dumping and don't mind to be confused, and those who have patience. Other than that, I'm sure and kind-of proud to be saying that you're on my side here. I'm telling you that this was one of the worst books I've read, and that I had to put it down or else I'd seriously freak and not know what to do with myself. I seriously went inside out, and wasn't able to revolve and turn myself back until I let this one go into bookish heaven.

Yuck. What's the best setting that you've ever read about?

Inland, by Kat Rosenfield

Inland, by Kat Rosenfield

Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Contemporary. Paranormal

Rating: 2/5 stars

Publication: June 12, 2014, by Dutton Juvenile

Format: Hardcover Edition (borrowed)



Goodreads Summary: The psychological labyrinth of a young woman’s insidious connection to the sea, from the Edgar Award nominated author of Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone.

Callie Morgan has long lived choked by the failure of her own lungs, the result of an elusive pulmonary illness that has plagued her since childhood. A childhood marked early by the drowning death of her mother—a death to which Callie was the sole witness. Her father has moved them inland, away from the memories of the California coast her mother loved so much and toward promises of recovery—and the escape of denial—in arid, landlocked air.

But after years of running away, the promise of a life-changing job for her father brings Callie and him back to the coast, to Florida, where Callie’s symptoms miraculously disappear. For once, life seems delightfully normal. But the ocean’s edge offers more than healing air … it holds a magnetic pull, drawing Callie closer and closer to the chilly, watery embrace that claimed her mother. Returned to the ocean, Callie comes of age and comes into a family destiny that holds generations of secrets and very few happy endings.

Review:

DNF @ 110 pages.

"Her husband could have her body, but not her heart. Never her heart. That was how it would happen, because that was what she'd planned. Because her heart had been claimed by another. It always had been, and would be forever. It was as she had promised, that first night on the shore, still in her bone-white wedding gown."

   I haven't become the black sheep with this book. Many people have disliked this book, and I agree with all of you out there. I almost didn't pick this book up at the library, but then decided to because the psychological premise caught my attention. I usually adore those sorts of books, but this was just a downer, sadly. 

    Callie Morgan is pretending to forget. Pretending to forget about the drowning death of her mother, a death that Callie actually witnessed. Her father moved them away from the trouble and from the setting of that day, and they've been moving around ever since, but never to the water. They unexpectedly move to Florida, where Callie's symptoms go away. The ocean's pull begins to draw Callie closer to the water that holds many secrets.

      

        This book was very strange and messed up. I didn't enjoy it, adding to the fact that it was strange itself and I saw something more than psychological... I get the fact that there was some paranormal aspects included, but it was all too strange and confusing for me to handle. I guess I just wasn't in the mood for something dark and deeper than expected. The concept wasn't built up straight, and from the 110 pages that I read, I had no idea what was happening. So I just left the book, and I didn't care how it would end up.

          One of the things I did love was the beautiful writing. Not many authors write like this, and Kat Rosenfield is definitely a unique writer. The way she writes is very flowingly and gorgeous. It sounds very historically inclined and dark, suiting the subject.

           The book bored me. I just didn't care what was happening or who it was happening to. If you get those sort of signs when reading, that really means that you should gear yourself away from the book. 

             Of course, Callie was a very weak character, especially coming from her condition. She wasn't strong and intelligent, and wasn't too likeable. 

              I vowed that I would at least read 100 pages before giving up, and that's when I did. I recommend this if you're a person who doesn't give up on bad books easily, because who knows, maybe it would improve for me if I kept on going.

Don't You Forget About Me, by Kate Karyus Quinn

Don't You Forget About Me, by Kate Karyus Quinn

Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Mystery, Supernatural, Thriller

Rating: 1.5/5 stars

Book #: Standalone

Publication: June 10, 2014, by HarperTeen

Format: ebook





Goodreads Summary:

Welcome to Gardnerville.

A place where no one gets sick. And no one ever dies.

Except...

There’s a price to pay for paradise. Every fourth year, the strange power that fuels the town exacts its payment by infecting teens with deadly urges. In a normal year in Gardnerville, teens might stop talking to their best friends. In a fourth year, they’d kill them.

Four years ago, Skylar’s sister, Piper, was locked away after leading sixteen of her classmates to a watery grave. Since then, Skylar has lived in a numb haze, struggling to forget her past and dull the pain of losing her sister. But the secrets and memories Piper left behind keep taunting Skylar—whispering that the only way to get her sister back is to stop Gardnerville’s murderous cycle once and for all.

Review:

 Okay so I know that this book has to do with songs, specifically the older ones that are found in our world today, but every time I see this book or think the title, all I hear is the song from The Breakfast Club, you know the 80's or 70's one? 

  ♪Don't you forget about me... ♪

      This book was absolutely horrible riveting. It was supposed to be so good and after reading many reviews, I was totally ready for a 5 star book. All of the reviews were positive and I was getting my jetpack ready so I can fly with this one. But all I got was another horrible book from Kate Karyus Quinn. But in fact, this was the worst one. 

       Reading the summary and looking at the cover of this book just captivated me. This idea is so fresh and so new and adding some paranormalcy into it is even better. I love the idea of monsters and this strange beautiful world coming together. Don't judge books by their amazing-sounding summaries. No, just no. You will be left sad and crying if you don't listen to me right now. 

        This book was taken place in the perspective of Skylar, who lives in Gardnerville where nobody gets sick and everyone is happy... At least they're supposed to be. Every four years, the town takes innocent teenagers and turns them into something deadly, something not believable. Skylar recently has lost her older sister, Piper, to this craze and was locked up somewhere unknown. Now, Skylar has to solve the mystery of this town and the mystery of her sister and what really happened to her.

         Gardnerville seemed like the perfect setting, and it really was. I loved the whole aspect and idea of it seeming to be the perfect town where nothing happens, but inside, it's the darkest place that you can even imagine. That's the gorgeousness of Quinn's settings, and just like in Another Little Piece, the idea was amazing.

           The plot was absolutely horrible. I was so bored and I felt that everything was really messed up. There were no explanations and nothing interesting happening. I didn't feel the urge to read this at all and I was completely bored all throughout, except in the beginning. In the beginning, everything started off well and I was absolutely intrigued. It eventually came off slow, right about until Foote came to become close with Skylar, and that's the way I was left for the rest of the book. Nothing was happening and I felt like I skimmed through it and flipped through the pages because I was lost and confused.

           The characters were pretty boring. I liked Skylar, though. She was kick-ass and hilarious even though she worried about things a lot, but we all get that, right?

            Even though we didn't get to know Piper too well, I liked her from the memories. She reminded me a lot of myself. xD She was the type to take charge and was smart at the same time. 

             The ending was absolutely awesome! Another aspect I actually liked. It left me wanting more and made me wonder what was left in life for the characters.

              In conclusion, this book was pretty bad. But there were a few good things about it that made me smile.