Audio: The Disasters - MK England

Narrated by: James Fouhey

Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 18-12-2018

Language: English

Publisher: HarperAudio

My Thoughts:

For a bunch of disasters I thought they would be well more if a disaster! But the reasons why they flunked out where all reasonable.

Nax who wants to be a pilot so much! But tries too hard. This is his story.

Then he meets Z, her reason was a good one too. Not a disaster, just a messed up system.

Rion who, huh, I forgot why he was kicked out actually.

Case, who is like the smartest and should be there!

But obviously this Academy is flawed when they do not look deeper.

I think I would have liked it from their POVS too, to be honest, now we were in Nax's head so much and he has issues.

Terrorist attack. People are hunting for these kids instead. And they are just trying to stay alive and tell the truth of what happened.

The action and punches keep on coming. The bad guys are really bad and want them dead yesterday.  The book also manages to have a lot of diversity. Gender, sexuality, race, religion. Of course me being very non religious wonder why we need religion 200 years from now (sschhh do not mind me, that is one of those things one should not talk about) . Poor Kazakhstan gets a vad rep too, one would think they would have moved a bit forward in 200 years. But nope, humanity still have a lot of issues and anger. But then that is humanity for you, we all suck.

I would have wanted this to be adult, I feel that would really have kicked it up a bit. But being YA, some things were not fully explored. Oh and this would make a great tv series ;D A CW one.

Conclusion.
Fun, short, sci-fi, family is what you make of it

Narrator Fouhey

Nice job by him. At one time some voices did blend together, but that worked itself out. He had some different accents for the characters too to show their origins. I did like posh Tion the best.

Synopsis

Hotshot pilot Nax Hall has a history of making poor life choices. So it’s not exactly a surprise when he’s kicked out of the elite Ellis Station Academy in less than twenty-four hours.

But Nax’s one-way trip back to Earth is cut short when a terrorist group attacks the Academy. Nax and three other washouts escape—barely—but they’re also the sole witnesses to the biggest crime in the history of space colonization. And the perfect scapegoats.

On the run and framed for atrocities they didn’t commit, Nax and his fellow failures execute a dangerous heist to spread the truth about what happened at the Academy.

They may not be “Academy material,” and they may not get along, but they’re the only ones left to step up and fight. 

Audio: Blanca and Roja - Anna-Marie McLemore

Narrated by: Almarie Guerra, Kyla Garcia, James Fouhey, Therese Plummer

Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins

Release date: 10-09-18

Publisher: Audible Studios 

YA Fiction Magical realism

Thank you Audible for this review copy!

My Thoughts:

A wish was made, and the wish turned into a curse. In every del Cisne family 1 girl will turn into a swan. It does not matter if you get one daughter and then say no more, the swans will always have their way. There will always be two girls to choose for. And that is one terrible curse.

Blanca was the sweet one. Roja was the the dark one. And also literally. Blanca was almost blonde and was the princess. Roja had dark hair and was the witch. Blanca would do anything for her sister and I admired her for that. While Roja was jealous, resentful and at a certain point in the book I started to dislike her.

Fairytales are woven in and Roja thinks of the story of Snow White and Rose Red a lot. I guess we get some of those swan legends too. And I did like that. Which brings me to the problem i had with the book. I thought this would be fantasy, but then they talked about jeans and cars and it was magical realism. But then thing is, magical realism is always there and you can not quite know what you are seeing. While this was really straight forward, one will turn into a swan, the whole town knows it. And later there was even more magic. See, that was not my problem either, what I wanted was more world building. I know nothing except that there is a town, that we visit like once for a sec. There is their house and there is a farm. I do not know this world. I love world building, but this was driving me crazy. If it had been fantasy I could have lived with it, but now I was all, why does not anyone come to investigate them turning into swans! I mean since everyone knew it! It should have been fantasy. Now it was just lacking. And when I get stuck on something I can not let it go.

There are actually 4 POVS in this book. There are also two boys who have gone missing, but they are not missing. They turn into trees, bugs, bears, you name it and later they become human again to interact with the girls. Which yes obviously means everyone will fall in love. Barclay is the rich boy running from his family, and Page is running from her family because they can not deal with the fact that Page is a boy, and not a girl. Though she accepts being called she, but never girl. I liked Page, he was fleshed out. While Barclay was never really anything more than a blue eyed boy that Roja liked.

Conclusion:*
I did like the book (even if the menstruation parts felt too long and like fillers, oh and the end, there were like 10 endings. Just end already). I did wish it had been fantasy, because it did not feel like magical realism when I could not understand where it was . It could just as well have been fantasy then in a world with white and latin populations. I liked the magic over it and she is a great writer. So the positive balances out the negative.

Narrator.

Yes there are 4 and that works really well since they shift povs a lot. That way you really know who is talking since they are so different from each other. It was well balanced.

Blurb

The del Cisne girls have never just been sisters; they're also rivals, Blanca as obedient and graceful as Roja is vicious and manipulative. They know that, because of a generations-old spell, their family is bound to a bevy of swans deep in the woods. They know that, one day, the swans will pull them into a dangerous game that will leave one of them a girl, and trap the other in the body of a swan.   

But when two local boys become drawn into the game, the swans' spell intertwines with the strange and unpredictable magic lacing the woods, and all four of their fates depend on facing truths that could either save or destroy them. Blanca & Roja is the captivating story of sisters, friendship, love, hatred, and the price we pay to protect our hearts.

Audio: Extraordinary Means - Robyn Schneider

Audiobook, 8h

Published May 26th 2015 by Katherine Tegen Books

YA Fiction

Own

My Thoughts

I wish books weren't compared to other books. Because when they did compare this one to a book it became obvious how it would end.

Short, must make it short!

Lane has drug resistent TB and is sent to a sanitarium. He was the kid on the honor roll and who did nothing else but study. And he has a hard time shaking it.

He meets real friends for once.

1 out of 5 sent there do not make it home

Spoiler where I talk about how idiotic they are

Wtf. Sneaking into town! They might infect someone!

Taking of their sensors! Those will help if you die! Stupid effing idiots.

Conclusion:

I liked it. Lane learned that there is more to life. He falls in love and he hopes.

PS

No it was never sad cos well look what I said at the top

Narrators:
Khristine Hvam , James Fouhey

They were both good but I had this problem. Khristine talked too fast and James too slow. It was hard to find a speed that worked for both. And then I still felt he was too slow.

Blurb:
Up until his diagnosis, Lane lived a fairly predictable life. But when he finds himself at a tuberculosis sanatorium called Latham House, he discovers an insular world with paradoxical rules, med sensors, and an eccentric yet utterly compelling confidante named Sadie—and life as Lane knows it will never be the same.