Review: Etiquette for an Apocalypse - Anne Mendel

It’s the 2020 Apocalypse and Sophie Cohen, former social worker turned neighborly drug dealer, must keep her family alive amid those pesky end of the world issues: starvation, earthquakes, plagues, gang violence and alas more starvation.She investigates a serial killing and takes down the sinister emerging power structure while learning to use a pizza box solar oven, bond with her chickens and blast tin cans from the perimeter fence with a Ruger 9MM.

In order to accomplish all this she must find a way to love her mother, accept her daughter’s adulthood and reignite her moribund marriage.

She might discover that a decentralized, consensus driven life—without fossil fuels, iPhones and chocolate éclairs—isn’t the end of the world, after all.

My thoughts:

That which  made me want to try this book was the cover, I mean look at it! So cool and weird, I love it.

It's the end of the world but some are struggling to survive (it helps having a genius for a brother who can make painkillers:) It's a new world where those with a skill has survived. Sophie sells drugs, but even in this bleak bleak world the book itself does not feel overly bleak. Because the book is so much more than just another dystopic apocalyptic story. It's a story about a mother trying to do right by her daughter, a girl becoming a teenager in this kind of world. Oh yes she is not happy. About a marriage that is not as passionate as it used to be. And it's not easy to be loving when you have nothing to eat and people die around you left and right. And last, dealing with a mother who does not want to accept that the world has changed.

But the family drama and issues aside the book is also a bit of a mystery as women are being murdered and Sophie wants to find out who is doing it. Because no one else care. And by digging around in things she should not more happens, I can't go into details but it gets exciting.

A bleak world about a family trying to cope. It has this certain feel to it, bleak yet so normal. Many apocalyptic books are awesome, but in the end they are just so freaking big. So much happened, the world has changed too much. Here it feels like this could happen. A supervolcano would just have to explode and that would send ripples through out the world. This is how people would try to get by.

Conclusion:

I have said it before, but a different sort of end of the world book, one that I enjoyed and one that felt like it was happening right now.

Cover:

Cool!

Genre: Apocalyptic
Pages: 276
Published: April 2012 by Bracket Press
Source: For review

Tradition Post and Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness

Ok tradition time again. But first, I am not speaking for the whole country here, as I in the  end belongs to a minority. So some things are for the entire country, some for just my parts, and some things just differ from place to place.

pics have been removed....

"Little Christmas"

This is celebrated on a Saturday before the first of Advent. There is usually a Little Xmas tree (now we just have a tiny plastic one), and it's the first time you feel Xmas is near.

When I was younger we made Little Xmas cards, and then we took those and went from neighbour to neighbour and opened the door and threw them in. Then you had to run as fast as you could so they would not catch you. It was so much fun, but that tradition seems to have died out with my generation ,now I sound really old! But we have not gotten one in the last 10 years, and the thing is, people lock their doors more often now too.) I also usually got a Little Xmas present, this year (haha I am still a kid) a chocolate calendar.

December 6th

This is our Independence Day and it's a quiet celebration. We light candles, and the president holds this big ball, and people usually watch that on tv. There are also soldier parades, and we honour those that fell for our freedom. And they always show Unknown Solider on tv. In the end it's not a day you celebrate, it is more a day that is.

December 13th Lucia Day

How to explain this one then. It's a Saint's day and the only saint we celebrate in the end. One girl is elected Lucia, so she gets this white dress with a red ribbon and she wears a crown of candles. She has her maidens with her, they holds candles in their hands and they sing Lucia songs, and some Christmas songs too. It seems to be an saint we held on, because she brings light at the darkest time of the year, when the sun barely makes it up before setting again. And perhaps  her origin is also from  a Goddess of Light.

Today Lucia has more followers, a few little santas, and Staffan Stalledräng, now what the heck is he, a stableboy? Ok did some digging, he comes from  when young people went around collection money and sang Staffan songs. Seems he comes from Saint Stefan, but since he has horses, perhaps some old God with horses too.

We also eat Lucia buns (not my fave). And a Lucia is elected in every school, city, for the whole of Finland. I never was Lucia, always only a maiden. They always pick the really pretty blonde girls,well or like to.

It's a pagan day mixed with Christian tradition, since you can never get the pagans truly out of us.

As for the real Lucia, she was a Christian martyr from Sicily. Her fiancé turned her in when she gave money to the poor. So she cut out her eyes and sent them to him.

Nightly, go heavy hearts
Round farm and steading
On earth, where sun departs,
shadows are spreading.
Then in our dark house,
(she) arises with lights lit
Sankta Lucia, Sankta Lucia!

Night-darkling, huge and still.
Hark, something's stirring!
In all our silent rooms,
Wingbeats are whisp'ring!
Stands on our threshold there,
White clad, lights in her hair,
Sankta Lucia, Sankta Lucia!

"Darkness shall fly away
Through earthly portals."
She brings such wonderful
words to us all!
Daylight, again renewed
will rise, all rosy-hued!
Sankta Lucia, Sankta Lucia!

Next Tradition post is Dec 24th ;) Edit: yikes, where is my head

And last a short review for 

Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness

Chaos Walking 3

Genre: YA, dystopian, sci-fi

Pages: 603

Published: 2010

"War," says the Mayor. "At last." Three armies march on New Prentisstown, each one intent on destroying the others. Todd and Viola are caught in the middle, with no chance of escape. As the battles commence, how can they hope to stop the fighting? How can there ever be peace when they're so hopelessly outnumbered? And if war makes monsters of men, what terrible choices await? But then a third voice breaks into the battle, one bent on revenge.

Truth be told I was disappointed. But that happened first at the end. Book 1 was so freaking amazing and I could not put it down. Book 2 was ok but things did not feel the same, and then this third one was ok. But not spectacular anymore.

Though I like how he brings in choice, genocide, feminism, and terrorism into this strange world. Because it is a good world, where the thoughts of men and animals can be heard and there is never silence.

Todd had to free the mayor/president so that he could lead the army against the spackle, the indgineous people of the planet. Behind Prentiss' army is another army, the women's army, they who the men wanted dead because the were silent. Then the spaceships arrive.

So it's a book about war, and terror.

Now why did I not like it, well the last 50 pages you got me mad. I got disappointed in someone and then angry cos in the end I just did not get it. Was it a happy ending, three words does not make it so. it could have been 2 other things too. So after reading 600 pages I wanted it a lot clearer and the whole book just got destroyed by it.

I am so forgetful!

The winners of The Heir by Grace Burrowes are

Melissa (Iswim) and Carrie (hammock)

Congrats! :)

Review: The Reapers are the angels - Alden Bell

Genre: Fiction, dystopian, futuristic
Pages: 225
Published: August 2010 Holt Paperbacks

 Zombies have infested a fallen America. A young girl named Temple is on the run. Haunted by her past and pursued by a killer, Temple is surrounded by death and danger, hoping to be set free.

For twenty-five years, civilization has survived in meager enclaves, guarded against a plague of the dead. Temple wanders this blighted landscape, keeping to herself and keeping her demons inside her heart. She can't remember a time before the zombies, but she does remember an old man who took her in and the younger brother she cared for until the tragedy that set her on a personal journey toward redemption. Moving back and forth between the insulated remnants of society and the brutal frontier beyond, Temple must decide where ultimately to make a home and find the salvation she seeks.

Oh yes, zombies, you read it right, my biggest nightmare. Still I watch those movies, but this is actually only my second book about them.

25 years ago they started to emerge, humans tried to fight back, and fought for years, but now the land is dead. People hiding behind barricades, and hunters on the road, fighting one zombie at a time. Among theses are 15 year old Temple, all on her own. All she ever has know has been death and destruction. She moves from place to place, hiding, running, fighting, and soon running from more that just zombies.

I liked Temple, she was kick-ass for sure. But then she grew up in a world that had slowly lost the fight. She is a good with a knife, she says what she thinks, and she remembers those that have fallen. She also feels that there is a darkness within her, but growing up like that who can blame her.

It is not a scary book, there is no real zombie action. She avoids them the best she can, she knows their tricks, and they are pretty slow and stupid. The danger here is more from other humans. When society falls so does everything. You learn about those that prayed on other humans, raping, killing and then the most scary of them all show up, hillbillies, you'll see. But there are also nice people, just trying to get by, and helping each other.

The book had this strange and nice flow to it. It was like it was happening, and like it had happened, and would happen. I liked it, he has a talent. It was a good book, and a sad one.

What do I think, well if people just manage to survive, then they will outlive the zombies, or this world will become a barren wasteland. I do wonder, since I do not get that answer.

This was a different sort of zombie book. It reminded me a bit of The Road, I have only seen the movie, but it had the same hopelessness to it, and at the same time that glimmer of hope. It is a story about a young woman on the road, aged far beyond her years.

Blodeuedd's Cover Corner: Not a fav, but fitting

Reason for reading: From the publisher

Final thoughts: I sure hope we don't get a zombie plague, and if we did, then I hope I could be so calm as she was.

4

Review: The Ask and The Answer - Patrick Ness

The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness

Chaos Walking, Book 2

Genre: Dystopian, sci-fi, YA
Pages: 544
Published: 2009

We were in the square, in the square where I'd run, holding her, carrying her, telling her to stay alive, stay alive till we got safe, till we got to Haven so I could save her - But there weren't no safety, no safety at all, there was just him and his men...

Fleeing before a relentless army, Todd has carried a desperately wounded Viola right into the hands of their worst enemy, Mayor Prentiss. Immediately separated from Viola and imprisoned, Todd is forced to learn the ways of the Mayor's new order. But what secrets are hiding just outside of town? And where is Viola? Is she even still alive? And who are the mysterious Answer? And then, one day, the bombs begin to explode.. 

I was blown away by book 1, and even if this wasn't that mind-blowing it was still a great book. The first was What, what, what!! And this one was more what, what, what?

Ness has this gift for total confusion. Who to trust, who to believe, I haev no idea. Everyone is telling things, everyone is lying. There is chaos walking the planet.

Todd has made it to Haven with the dying Viola, but there he is met by Mayor Prentiss and the army and Viola is taken away. He is put into jail, and later forced to work with the now President Prentiss's son, putting the alien Spackle to work. All this while Prentiss is being really nice to him, and telling him things so that he does not knwo what to believe any more.

There is Todd chapters and Viola chapters as she goes down another road and hears another versions of the same story. All while they just want to find each other again.

I still do not know what to believe. Why were all the women in Prentisstown killed? I know the President is poison, but still, what to believe?

The thing here is that things escalate, the president is yes a monster and whatever he seems to say he does not trust women. I mean they did kill all the women in their town. But then there is those that oppose him and they are not right either. The next book will be called Monsters of Men, and this is something that Viola and Todd says in book 1 or 2, war makes monsters out of men and that is so true in this book.

This is chilling Dystopian fiction that should be read. It will grab hold of you with a bunch of questions, and how that planet will get peace I do now know. The first book was about them on the run, things happening all the time. This book is more lies and propaganda, and trying to stay human when everything is chaos around you.

I am truly looking forward to book 3, not only cos this book ends with a major cliffhanger just like book 1 did.

Cover thoughts: Not a fan.

Reason for Reading: Library book

Final thoughts: Great! I loved it.

Review: The Knife of Never letting Go - Patrick Ness

The Knife of never Letting Go

Chaos Walking, book 1

Genre: YA, futuristic, sci-fi, dystopian
Pages: 496
Published: 2008

Todd Hewitt is the last boy in Prentisstown.

But Prentisstown isn't like other towns. Everyone can hear everyone else's thoughts in a constant, overwhelming, never-ending Noise. There is no privacy. There are no secrets. Or are there?

Just one month away from the birthday that will make him a man, Todd unexpectedly stumbles upon a spot of complete silence. Which is impossible. Prentisstown has been lying to him. And now he's going to have to run...

Oh, oh, oh, ok I have found the kind of YA I like and it has to do with freaky futures! This is what I should stick with when it comes to YA.

Todd lives in Prentisstown with his two guardians. All the women died after the aliens on teh planet released something that made the men hear everything. Every thought, and I mean every. Trees, dogs, flowers. There is a never ending noise. Todd lives in this, but then one day he finds something, a place of nothing. Soon he is running for his life, for in this book nothing is what it seems. I can't tell you anything more because this book sure hides its secrets well. But of course first they killed all the aliens, and Todd is the last boy since there are no women anymore. That I can tell.

I read this book and never put it down, I could not stop, because the way he writes. He guards those secrets well and in the end I just read faster and faster. I can't say anything more, but wow. I do like scary worlds. And I would not want to live on this planet.

This book has got some violence, not much, but some things did make me cringe. Just because it was YA, but then again it was not graphic, and it was needed to show the horror.

It is not sci-fi either, I learn they got there by ship, but it was religious people fleeing the old crowded planet, so now they are simple farmers. No technology at all. 

It is also a strange book, sometimes he writes the noise, an entire page with nose. But it gives you an idea what it is like, and there are not many. I do like his style, and I can't wait to get my hands on book 2 because the end, again, he knows how to keep a girl on edge.

What can I say, if you liked the Hunger Games then I am sure you will like this one too. Anyone can read and and enjoy it. And it sure has some suspense, and the secrets, oh the secrets. For fans of dystopian like fiction, read this.

This will be one of the best books I have read this year. This sure did not disappoint me, Ness knows how to twist a tale.

Book 2, The Ask and the Answer, is already out, and book 3 Monsters of Men comes out in the fall. The perfect time to start this book then.

Blodeuedd's Cover Corner: Sure, not pretty, but eye-catching and scary.

Reason for Reading: Library Book

Final thoughts: Read it!

Review: Specials - Scott Westerfeld

Specials by Scott Westerfeld

Book 3, The Uglies series

Genre: YA dystopian fiction
Pages: 372
Published: 2006

"Special Circumstances":

The words have sent chills down Tally's spine since her days as a repellent, rebellious ugly. Back then Specials were a sinister rumor -- frighteningly beautiful, dangerously strong, breathtakingly fast. Ordinary pretties might live their whole lives without meeting a Special. But Tally's never been ordinary. And now she's been turned into one of them: a superamped fighting machine, engineered to keep the uglies down and the pretties stupid. The strength, the speed, and the clarity and focus of her thinking feel better than anything Tally can remember. Most of the time. One tiny corner of her heart still remembers something more.

Still, it's easy to tune that out -- until Tally's offered a chance to stamp out the rebels of the New Smoke permanently. It all comes down to one last choice: listen to that tiny, faint heartbeat, or carry out the mission she's programmed to complete. Either way, Tally's world will never be the same.

 

First book read for the year.

I can say at once that it was not as good as the first, but then it is hard to top a thing like that, and this book evolved in its own way so we get to follow all "different" kinds of people, from the uglies, to the pretties and now the special.

Tally is now scary, with fangs, and all hard angles, she has the body of a machine, and on top of that she cuts herself like the rest of the cutters. it is something to feel, to make them more special. yes I am very sure Westerfeld has a point with that, and how some fall into it to feel, when everything else is dark.

She also looks down on everyone else and thinks the specials to be the greatest people ever. Even Zane, her pretty ex is just boring and average. She is scary in her believes, and it is hard to like her in this book. But then she is the extreme.

The story in this book is how to get Zane special too, and by doing that they start something really bad. That and fighting the rebels will shape her world. It has been crumbling for a while now and the governments are not happy, and they are also scared.

I like his world, and the history he made into it. And even if it is an extreme world they do have points. By making everyone pretty there is no jealousy, wars, and fights (and yes they have stuff in their brains). And they are not destroying the earth. The question here is whether freedom is more important than the earth itself. For when people are free it will start again.

One thing I did have a problem with, the way things gets fixed, it seems so easy even though it is hard, and it does makes Tally to the center of the world. But other than that this is a most to the trilogy, and to find out how it all ends for this beautified world.

Blodeuedd's Cover Corner: I like it, I can see the fangs almost there, she looks scary pretty.

Reason for Reading: Library book.

Final thoughts: Not as shocking as the first, but still an ok finish to the series. And there is one more book too even if Tally is not in that one.