2015 A Year in Books

Hey, guys! As 2015 draws to a close, I thought I'd give you guys my top ten favorite books of the year (not that came out, but that I read).  Here's the list!

(Last Year's you can find here)

Challenger Deep

The Long Walk

Boo

Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist

Stand Off (Winger #2)

Five Stages of Andrew Brawley

The Young Elites

Red Queen

The Martian

Angelfall

Happy Reading!

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Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor 4.5/5 stars

Hey, guys!  I am an avid listener to the podcast Welcome to Night Vale, and a few months back, they wrote a book based on the same universe.  While I recommend the podcast, you don't need to have listened to it for this book to make sense.
I listened to the audiobook version of this, which is narrated by the same people who voice the podcast.

The Cover:

The Cover:

It shows the town of Night Vale with the mountains (whether or not they exist is questionable) in the background.  It is a fine cover and fairly simple.  I like it, but it isn't too exciting.  Solid B cover.

Official Description:

From the creators of the wildly popular Welcome to Night Vale podcast comes an imaginative mystery of appearances and disappearances that is also a poignant look at the ways in which we all struggle to find ourselves...no matter where we live.
Located in a nameless desert somewhere in the great American Southwest, Night Vale is a small town where ghosts, angels, aliens, and government conspiracies are all commonplace parts of everyday life. It is here that the lives of two women, with two mysteries, will converge.
Nineteen-year-old Night Vale pawn shop owner Jackie Fierro is given a paper marked "King City" by a mysterious man in a tan jacket holding a deer skin suitcase. Everything about him and his paper unsettles her, especially the fact that she can't seem to get the paper to leave her hand, and that no one who meets this man can remember anything about him. Jackie is determined to uncover the mystery of King City and the man in the tan jacket before she herself unravels.
Night Vale PTA treasurer Diane Crayton's son, Josh, is moody and also a shape shifter. And lately Diane's started to see her son's father everywhere she goes, looking the same as the day he left years earlier, when they were both teenagers. Josh, looking different every time Diane sees him, shows a stronger and stronger interest in his estranged father, leading to a disaster Diane can see coming, even as she is helpless to prevent it.
Diane's search to reconnect with her son and Jackie's search for her former routine life collide as they find themselves coming back to two words: "King City". It is King City that holds the key to both of their mysteries, and their futures...if they can ever find it. 

(Note: This description makes it sound very suspenseful and not at all silly, which I disagree with.)

My Review:

I enjoyed listening to this book.  It was surreal and quirky as well as had an interesting plot.  As a fan of the podcast, I was a little disappointed by the amount of overlap between those characters and the book's (the world was the same but the characters different).  It was still entertaining though!

The characters were interesting and complex.  They had their own personalities and motivations.  I will admit though that at certain points in the book, when both Jackie and Diana were doing the same basic thing, I would get them confused.  They had very similar actions if for drastically different motivations.  It wasn't a big deal, but I thought I'd mention it.

The plot was interesting.  Bizarre and random but that was the point, so I didn't mind.  I was entertained, and the storyline was easy to follow.

I would definitely recommend reading Welcome to Night Vale if you enjoy a strange book or if you're looking for a light read.  You don't need to have listened to the podcast, but it might make you more excited during the few cameos.  I would recommend it!

Audiobook:

If was very well read.  Lots of emotion was brought across without being overwhelming.  Cecil Baldwin read it (the same man who narrates the podcast) and his voice is very relaxing.  I would recommend the audiobook version if you have a way to listen.

Phrase:

Josh's coat of many colors

If you liked this book, you may also like:

The Necromancer

Happy Reading!

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The Running Man by Richard Bachman (AKA Stephen King) 4.5/5 stars

Hey, guys!  I just finished the second to last book in The Bachman Collection which included both Rage and The Long Walk (both of which were worth reading).  The Running Man was good. The ending was a little rushed, but I enjoyed it quite a bit.  This is going to be a fairly quick review relative to my other ones.

The Cover:

The Cover:
It shows Richards (the main character) in the middle of a target with the sights set on him, while he's running.  I like the cover, but I'm not blown away.  A solid B cover.

Official Description:
The Running Man is set within a dystopian future in which the poor are seen more by the government as worrisome rodents than actual human beings. The protagonist of The Running Man, Ben Richards, is quick to realize this as he watches his daughter, Cathy, grow more sick by the day and tread closer and closer to death. Desperate for money to pay Cathy’s medical bills, Ben enlists himself in a true reality style game show where the objective is to merely stay alive.

My Review:
This book is mostly really intense.  It definitely keeps you hooked on suspense the entire time you're reading it.  There was plenty of action.
The main character, Richards, was complex and interesting to read about.  He was by no means perfect or very "hero-ish", but he acted like a real person would when placed in this situation.  The background characters were much less developed.  Maybe even underdeveloped.  To be fair, the side characters were not very major in the book as most of it was Richards's internal thoughts.   Richards was the only character that any effort was put in to make him non-two-dimensional.  
I loved the plot and the excitement it brought.  However, the books ending was super rushed and just didn't fit in with the rest of the book at all.  The last twenty pages of the book were out of nowhere, confusing, and just breezed over.  The ending really disappointed me and just made my entire recollection of the book decrease in quality.  
The Running Man was not my favorite Stephen King/Richard Bachman book, but I did enjoy it for the most part.  If you like the concept, go ahead and give it a read.  If you're skeptical, maybe pick up a different Stephen King book.

Recommended:
Misery
The Long Walk
11/22/63

Phrase:
Looking for a running man, not a hiding man.

Happy Reading!

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The Amazing Book is Not On Fire by Dan Howell and Phil Lester 5/5 stars

Hey, guys!  So, this is a change of pace.  The youtube sensations Dan and Phil wrote this book about their lives in a scrapbook style.  This is different from most books I review here, but I was indecisive about whether or not to read it, so I thought I'd review it to help people like me.  If you have no idea who they are, maybe skip this review.
The Cover:

The Cover:
I love this cover/ title combo.  It combines both Dan and Phil's usernames (danisnotonfire and AmazingPhil) and adds "book" in as well.  The cover just tells you what you are going to get.  Solid A cover.

Official Description:
Hello reader,
In this book is a world. A world created by two awkward guys who share their lives on the internet!
We are Dan and Phil and we invite you on a journey inside our minds! From the stories of our actual births, to exploring Phil's teenage diary and all the reasons why Dan's a fail.
Learn how to draw the perfect cat whiskers, get advice on what to do in an awkward situation and discover which of our dining chairs represents you emotionally. With everything from what we text each other, to the time we met One Direction and what really happened in Vegas...

My Review:
I really enjoyed The Amazing Book is Not on Fire.  You definitely have to be a fan of Dan and Phil's youtube channels to have it make any sense, of course you're probably not interested in it if you are not.  The way its formatted is that about half the book is full of various multiple page long stories and the other half is more of a scrapbook style with side conversations between Dan and Phil and various other small "sketches" such as the guide to draw the perfect cat whiskers.  
It was a fun read, very light.  It is more of a coffee table book (meaning that it has about 2-3 page segments that you can spread out) than a novel, so keep that in mind.  
Overall, it was a really enjoyable read.  The book included sections such as Dan and Phil's university years, fanfictions they wrote about themselves, and the lifestories of Becky and Jessica.
I would recommend it only if you are already a fan of theirs and realize that it's not a full novel and is formatted differently.  I'm glad I read it!

Happy Reading!

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Beauty Queens by Libba Bray 3.5/ 5 stars

Hey, guys!  I just finished listening to the audiobook of Beauty Queens by Libba Bray.  I was reading it for my school's book club, and I did not enjoy it.  It started off pretty good, but it tried to get too deep and the plot went into a downward spiral.
The Cover:

The Cover:
It's a decent cover.  It shows a beauty queen with two sashes, one of the title and the other of lipstick like machine gun bullets.  Solid B cover.

Official Description:

When a plane crash strands thirteen teen beauty contestants on a mysterious island, they struggle to survive, to get along with one another, to combat the island's other diabolical occupants, and to learn their dance numbers in case they are rescued in time for the competition.Written by Libba Bray, the hilarious, sensational, Printz Award-winning author of A Great and Terrible Beauty and Going Bovine. The result is a novel that will make you laugh, make you think, and make you never see beauty the same way again.

My Review:

This book started off strong, but quickly spiraled downhill.  I loved the hilarity of the book.  Thirteen beauty queens must survive on an island while half are more invested in practicing walking down the runway than finding food and shelter.  However, halfway through the book, the author decided that it was more important to make a political point than to have an entertaining plot.

On the "political" aspect of this book, I think it went overboard.  The diversity (in gender, sexuality, etc.) of the characters was forced.  Literally all groups were covered and pushed.  The relationships between the characters did not seem natural and were forced in order to prove a point about lesbian relationships.  Don't get me wrong, I love diversity in books.  It was refreshing in a way to have this cast of characters, but I thought it cheapened the book and was awkward and forced.  

In the same vein, the characters were irritating.  This might have been because of there forced "political" aspects or their general one-dimensionality, but either way there were flat characters who were not very interesting.  

I loved the humor of the book, though.  It was an entertaining and light read for the most part.  

I wouldn't read it again or recommend it to you guys.  I wasn't a fan, though I could understand if you did like it.  It tried too hard to teach a lesson and lost track of the story.

Happy Reading!

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This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp 4/5 stars

Hey, guys!  I just finished This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp today.  I had some mixed feeling about it in the beginning but ended up really enjoying it.  If you love suspense, this is a great book!  (Warning: It can be violent at times.)
The Cover:

The Cover:
I really like this cover.  It shows pieces of chalk being obliterated by a bullet with the title written in chalk.  I like it.  The subheader, in case you can't read it, says, "Everyone has a reason to fear the boy with the gun."  A+ cover

Official Description:
10:00 a.m.
The principal of Opportunity, Alabama's high school finishes her speech, welcoming the entire student body to a new semester and encouraging them to excel and achieve.
10:02 a.m.
The students get up to leave the auditorium for their next class.
10:03
The auditorium doors won't open.
10:05
Someone starts shooting.
Told over the span of 54 harrowing minutes from four different perspectives, terror reigns as one student's calculated revenge turns into the ultimate game of survival.

My Review:
First, I need to talk about this books formatting.  It's told from the alternating first-person perspectives of four students at Opportunity High on the day of a school shooting.  Each POV only lasts for about a page and a half, and each chapter is a set of all the characters' POV over the course of about two minutes of story-time.  This makes it very confusing to keep track of the characters for the first few chapters, but them adds to the suspense and keeps the tension up as the story progresses.  After most chapters will be texts or tweets that are being exchanged between minor characters of the story.  I understand Nijkamp's choice but wish it had been written in third person instead of first person.  
Each of the characters have a unique relationship with the shooter, which gives a neat perspective on all of the events.  The characters were interesting, though I feel like their life-stories were a bit forced and added some unnecessary expositional pages to the book.  That being said, I loved the interactions between the characters.  It was a great decision to compare Sylv and her brother to Autumn and hers. 
The plot was great.  It somehow managed to stay suspenseful constantly.  It can get extremely intense at times.
Overall, I would recommend it if you can handle violence/suspense and remember that it gets better once you understand who the characters are. 

I just checked and This Is Where It Ends doesn't come out until January 5, 2016.  
(I got it a while ago from the folks at Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.)

If you liked this book, you may also like:
Rage by Stephen King
Misery by Stephen King
The Long Walk by Stephen King
(or really any Stephen King book)

Happy Reading!

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Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman 5/5 stars

Hey, guys!  This week, I listened to the audiobook of one of the coolest books I've ever read.  Seriously, it's kind of mind blowing.  I was a bit skeptical at first, which is why I've waited so long to read it because it sounded kind of different than most books.  It was, and it was awesome!
Neal Shusterman is one of my favorite author.  His books are really deep, funny, and thought-provoking, so I knew this book would be at least really good.  I wasn't expected the majesty that was this book though.

Anyways, the cover:

The Cover:
This is a cool cover.  It really depicts Caden's mind really well.  The phrase coming from the string : "The bottom is only the beginning" describes both Caden's mental state and his trips on the sea with the Captain.  The title refers to the bottom of Marianna's Trench.  A+ cover

Official Description (which I don't like):
Caden Bosch is on a ship that's headed for the deepest point on Earth: Challenger Deep, the southern part of the Marianas Trench.


Caden Bosch is a brilliant high school student whose friends are starting to notice his odd behavior.


Caden Bosch is designated the ship's artist in residence, to document the journey with images.

Caden Bosch pretends to join the school track team but spends his days walking for miles, absorbed by the thoughts in his head.

Caden Bosch is split between his allegiance to the captain and the allure of mutiny.

Caden Bosch is torn.

A captivating and powerful novel that lingers long beyond the last page, Challenger Deep is a heartfelt tour de force by one of today's most admired writers for teens.


My Description (simplified):
Challenger Deep is told in alternating segments (of about three chapters each) between Caden in his normal life (where it slowly becomes apparent that he is losing his mind) and his mind/delusions of himself on a ship going  to dive down the Marianna's Trench.  

My Review:
This book was just really cool.  I don't want to spoil anything for you, so this will be very general.  Know that I recommend this book was a passion though.  It was amazing.
As the book continue along, the two alternating worlds/ stories became more and more linked and connected.  They started to blend together slowly, and Caden's circumstances became more and more clear as you start discovering new stories.  Neal Shusterman doesn't just present you with these connections.  They slowly become more and more apparent until you connect them yourself and are blown away.  (Don't worry, after a little while it is declared, so I promise you won't be confused.)  The story with the Captain also contained some really neat symbolism.  That is not something I normally notice or like at all, but it was so artful that I couldn't help but love it.  All of this was really well done.  
The characters were also really complicated and complex.  Caden is the only character we are fully exposed to.  He is a very relatable character, in spite of his position.  The other characters contain complexity too, but Caden doesn't react enough with the other characters to discover too much about them.
The plot was fast-moving, which is surprising for such a mentally oriented book.  It definitely got me hooked.  When you start this book, give it a few chapters before you judge it though.  It may start off a bit confusing (it's sort of the point), so you need to adjust a bit before deciding for/against Challenger Deep.
This is the part where I usually say things that I didn't like about a book.  I have nothing.  Maybe if you actively hate gaining a new perspective from a book, don't read this one?  
I'd strongly recommend Challenger Deep to anyone looking for a well-written, insightful, funny, and deep novel.  Trust me, this is a great book.

Audiobook Review:
This is one of the best audiobooks I've listened to.  Michael Curran-Dorsano (the narrator) did a fantastic job.  I have no complaints.

Phrase:
Moping the brains off the deck.

Phrase I said the most often while reading:
Aw, honey.

More Books By Neal Shusterman:
The Schwa Was Here
Antsy Does Time (sequel to The Schwa Was Here)
Downsiders
The Shadow Club
The Shadow Club Rising (sequel to The Shadow Club)
Speeding Bullet
The Dark Side of Nowhere
Unwholly (Unwind #2)
Undivided (Unwind #4)
Tesla's Attic
Edison's Alley (sequel to Tesla's Attic)

Happy Reading!

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Feed by M.T. Anderson 4/5 stars

Hey, guys!  I listened to Feed on an audiobook, so I apologize for any spelling mistakes, but I'll include an review of the audiobook's style at the end of this review!
For the first three quarters of this book, I was not engaged.  It was kind of boring and heavy on its political message (more on that later).  However, the last quarter of this book was amazing.  It was one of the best and most organic endings I've ever read.  It was so good, in fact, that it bumped my rating of the whole book up to four stars.  Feed is definitely an interesting book to analyze, but it isn't as good for casual reading.
The Cover:

The Cover:

It shows a normal human during later events of this book, Titus, completely bald and with the Feed (a kind of built-in computer) stuck into his head.  The words on the cover are from the first page or so of the book.  It's won quite a few awards, as you can see, which I think were justified.  It's one of those books that you finish and feel like you've earned an insight into human society.  Overall, the cover is straightforward and interesting.  It's intriguing, but not insightful.  Overall A- cover

Official Description:

Identity crises, consumerism, and star-crossed teenage love in a futuristic society where people connect to the Internet via feeds implanted in their brains.
For Titus and his friends, it started out like any ordinary trip to the moon - a chance to party during spring break and play with some stupid low-grav at the Ricochet Lounge. But that was before the crazy hacker caused all their feeds to malfunction, sending them to the hospital to lie around with nothing inside their heads for days. And it was before Titus met Violet, a beautiful, brainy teenage girl who has decided to fight the feed and its omnipresent ability to categorize human thoughts and desires. Following in the footsteps of George Orwell, Anthony Burgess, and Kurt Vonnegut Jr., M. T. Anderson has created a not-so-brave new world — and a smart, savage satire that has captivated readers with its view of an imagined future that veers unnervingly close to the here and now.

My Review:
I'd heard about this book for years and just now decided to read it.  I wish that I hadn't waited so long because I felt like I had already read it.  Feed was published back in 2004 but with all of the dystopian books popular now it was just kind of repetitive (although it was first).  I feel like I would have appreciated it more if I wasn't as familiar with all of these more recent books.
Feed was an objectively good book.  I finished reading it and I felt that I had actually gained something from reading it.  I think it'd be a good book for schools to teach as well or maybe even a book club.  It deserves to be at least slightly analyzed.  However, for just a casual read, it can be a bit slow.  Still good, but slow.
The narration style was interesting.  It was told like a conservation, slightly stream of conscious.  It was in first person and used future-slang constantly in a way that actually wasn't confusing.  Also, sometimes the dialogue was introduced in a way similar to, "and Marty was like, "Unit!"".  It was really neat to have the style be like that and added to the book.  It felt a lot more intimate, for lack of a better word.  Of course, at the end of the book, that choice makes perfect sense in a beautiful way.
The characters were... interesting.  I thought that M.T. Anderson did a nice job on Titus, the main character who is only mostly brainwashed by consumerist America.  He was complex and was mostly predictable (which is kind of the whole point of the book) until sometimes he wasn't.  Titus had very human responses to his situations.  On the other hand, Violet the only other character who was developed at all was unrealistic.  I think this is the thing that bugged me the most about this book.  She had no real reason to do anything that she did until the last fourth of the book.  She was supposed to be the stereotypical girl who opens the main character's eye to how messed up the world was,  but she was flat.  She liked the personality necessary to earn sympathy.  I hated her, but I hated Titus's other friends (who you are supposed to dislike) more, so I won't complain too much.  Her character made the book lose its realism.
Overall, I think that this book is great to think about and is a sort of classic dystopian novel, but it isn't as great for just a casual read.  I would recommend it if you are interested in reading about a future where technology and consumerism get out of hand.

Audiobook Review:
It both did some things well and others terribly.  Violet constantly whispered, and you had to strain to hear her.  That was terribly irritating.  On the other hand, whenever Feed had an add inserted into it, the various narrators and music backing it made the adds seem real and to cut in, just like the book envisioned.  That was really neat.  David Aaron Baker (the narrator) did a great job making the book seem like a conversation between Titus and the reader/listener.  It was a decent audiobook that I would recommend if you have good volume control.

Phrase:
Hey, Unit!

Happy Reading!

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The Martian by Andy Weir 5/5 stars

Hey, guys!  Since I last reveiwed, I've just been sitting here in shock over how incredible The Martian is.  This is now one of my favorite books.  Ever.  I'm going to go ahead and say that I recommend it times about a trillion.  But, I know you guys need to be convinced, like I was, so stick around for my review.
I'm sure by now, most of you have seen something about the film adaptation of The Martian (the one with Matt Damon as an astronaut).  Over the last three weeks, I've had a girl in my Creative Writing class, Hank Green, and like six other people recommend this book to me.  I was eventually convinced and requested it at the library... where there was a 150 person wait.  I looked through a bunch of other libraries before I finally found a copy without a wait and snatched it.  And, man, am I glad that I did!

The Cover:

The Cover:
It shows an astronaut, Mark Watney, in a dust cloud of Mars.  Trust me, you'll get the significance after reading the book.  It's nice and clean cut.  The cover simply shows Watney all alone and shows Mars as well.  Solid A cover.

Official Description:
Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm nearly kills him & forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded & completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—& even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. Chances are, though, he won't have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment or plain-old "human error" are much more likely to kill him first. But Mark isn't ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills—& a relentless, dogged refusal to quit—he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?

My Review:
This book was basically Mark Watney struggling to survive alone on a deserted planet for 4 years with the supplies to last a crew of six only a month.  Not only does he have to deal with the constant threat of machine failure, which could lead to almost immediate death, but he also has to deal with dwindling rations and his only source of entertainment being disco music.  Prepare to have your heart pound in your chest while you frantically read to discover how Watney possible will manage to engineer his way out of multitudes of problems.  
This book was just fantastic.  I can't express to you how invested I got into the story of Watney's unlikely survival.  It was all I could do to avoid ranting about The Martian to everyone I encountered, as I'm sure any reader of this book will agree with.  
The plot was fast-moving and organic.  The problems arose in a way that flowed and was not at all forced.  Watney's solutions to early problems led to the next potentially fatal disaster.  
The story was told through mission logs from Watney's point of view, with an occasional point of view from NASA as they deal with Watney's death on Mars and their eventual attempts at his rescue. I loved the writing style.  It was light and very conversational while still placing us directly where the action was.  
Watney was an amazing character.  He was brilliant, constantly out-thinking the reader, and also completely sarcastic and human.  From the very first sentence, I could tell that I would love this guy, "I'm pretty much fucked. That's my considered opinion. Fucked."  (Oh, I should also warn you that there is slight cursing.  Nothing ridiculous, but it happens.)  If that doesn't get you at least interested, I'm not sure what will.  He was also very relatable and was quick with a sly comment.  There wasn't much focus of the other characters in this book, just because of the subject matter, but from what little we saw of them, they still were all unique and interesting characters.  
I can't find a single complaint about this book.  It was phenomenal.  The only thing that I can think of someone disliking is the scientific explanations.  Watney would explain how and why he was doing something with scientific reasoning that was clear for me to follow with only a basic covering in chemistry/biology but sometimes went on for a page or two.  It isn't a significant portion of the book, and it builds authentic, so I'm glad it was included but some people might not enjoy that part.  

Cool things I've heard about this book after finishing it:
All of the science in the book is correct.  How cool is that?  The Martian was originally published online for free, Andy Weir put in on Amazon so that people could read it on their Kindles for 99 cents, it became a bestseller in Sci-fi and a publisher came up to him to sell it in print.  Next thing he knew The Martian was a NYT Bestseller and being made into a movie.  Wow.

Phrase:
Disco and Duct Tape

Quotes:

"Remember those old math questions you had in algebra class? Where water is entering a container at a certain rate and leaving at a different rate and you need to figure out when it'll be empty? Well, that concept is critical to the 'Mark Watney doesn't die' project I'm working on." - page 18

"I have duct tape.  Ordinary duct tape, like you buy at a hardware store.  Turns out even NASA can't improve on duct tape." - page 32

"But no amount of careful design by NASA can get around a determined arsonist with a tank of pure oxygen" - page 160

I'm planning on dragging a friend to see the movie so I'll let you know how that compares in the next week or so.

Happy Reading!

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The Necromancer (Johannas Cabal #1) by Jonathan L. Howard 4/5 stars

Hey, guys!  One of my best friends had been trying to get me to read this book for the better part of two years, so here I am.  There were some fantastic parts and some... not as great parts.  Fair warning, this book is not for everyone.  Its main positive is its quirky sense of humor, which may not align with your own.  Be careful when deciding whether you want to read it or not!

The Cover:

The Cover:
It shows a skeleton and a giant X with a dotted line after it.  I'm not sure who the skeleton is supposed to be.   (If you know, please comment!)  But, I like the X/ dotted line thing.  It makes the cover look like a contract, which works well in this book.  B cover

Official Description:
A charmingly gothic, fiendishly funny Faustian tale about a brilliant scientist who makes a deal with the Devil, twice.  
Johannes Cabal sold his soul years ago in order to learn the laws of necromancy. Now he wants it back. Amused and slightly bored, Satan proposes a little wager: Johannes has to persuade one hundred people to sign over their souls or he will be damned forever. This time for real. Accepting the bargain, Jonathan is given one calendar year and a traveling carnival to complete his task. With little time to waste, Johannes raises a motley crew from the dead and enlists his brother, Horst, a charismatic vampire to help him run his nefarious road show, resulting in mayhem at every turn.

My Review:
The sense of humor in this book is kind of like Lemony Snicket and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.  It uses irony and heavy heaps of sarcasm to tell its story.  The sort of dry British humor that you rather love or don't get.  The Necromancer definitely succeeded in being funny.  The question is beyond that. 
The plot was a bit slow.  It, in and of itself, was interesting, but occasionally would go on tangents that didn't really go anywhere.   An example of this was a ten-page-or-so segment from the poorly spelled perspective of a little kid at the Cabal Carnival.  It was obviously in the book to make a joke, but that segment just didn't entertain me and was a struggle for me to get through.  
That was my only main problem with this book: the jokes that didn't quite go over well.
The characters were interesting.  I loved the dynamics they had with one another, especially Horst and Johannas's dynamic.  I'll let you know that there was always a LOT of banter.  That being said, all the characters other than Johannas and Horst were one dimensional.  They didn't need to be complex, but they were lacking in a little realism.  
Overall, it was a slow book, but I enjoyed its dry sense of humor.  If you like that sort of thing, give it a shot!  If not, this book probably isn't for you.  
Will I read the next book, The Detective?  I'm not sure yet.  I probably won't, unless I get in the mood for this type of humor at some point.

Phrase:
You just need to fill out a few forms...

Happy Reading!

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Stand Off (Winger #2) by Andrew Smith 5/5 stars

Hey, guys!  I just finished Stand-Off by Andrew Smith.  Winger was fantastic and you should all read that, but Stand-Off could also be a standalone if you decided to make the mistake of not reading Winger.  I was looking forward to this book so much.  I think I may have screamed when I saw that there would be a sequel to Winger (one of the funniest and most intense books I've ever read).  I was not disappointed.
The Cover:

The Cover:
It shows Ryan Dean with Sam Abernathy in a headlock while Sam looks quite pleased.  It works really well for this book for some reason.  It's not a cover I would see and want to read the book but... It works.  It sums up Ryan Dean and Sam's relationship in one screenshot.  The title is also really cool.  Winger was named after Ryan Dean's position in rugby/nickname, and Stand Off follows the same pattern.  It's Ryan Dean's new rugby position and also shows the interactions he has with the other characters (Hint: There are a lot of stand offs.)  Solid A cover

Official Description:
It’s his last year at Pine Mountain, and Ryan Dean should be focused on his future, but instead, he’s haunted by his past. His rugby coach expects him to fill the roles once played by his lost friend, Joey, as the rugby team’s stand-off and new captain. And somehow he’s stuck rooming with twelve-year-old freshman Sam Abernathy, a cooking whiz with extreme claustrophobia and a serious crush on Annie Altman—aka Ryan Dean’s girlfriend, for now, anyway.
Equally distressing, Ryan Dean’s doodles and drawings don’t offer the relief they used to. He’s convinced N.A.T.E. (the Next Accidental Terrible Experience) is lurking around every corner—and then he runs into Joey’s younger brother Nico, who makes Ryan Dean feel paranoid that he’s avoiding him. Will Ryan Dean ever regain his sanity?

My Review:
This book was fantastic.  It was the perfect blend of high-quality humor and serious topics.  It was one of those books that make you get very attached to the characters through jokes and awkward situations and then takes those attachments and punches you in the gut with them.  
Basically, in Stand Off Ryan Dean has two problems.  He, a fourteen year old senior, gets stuck with a twelve year old freshman roommate who watches the cooking channel constantly and has such intense claustrophobia that they have to leave the window open to their dorm.  During winter.  And Ryan Dean has to leave the room whenever Sam needs to use the bathroom, since he can't close the door.  Problem number two is that Ryan Dean can't get over the death of his best friend.  He has night terrors and can't even draw comics without adding a goul-like guy named Nate to them.
Stand Off was great.  I can't even find words.  There was superb character development, humor, heart-wrenching moments, comics, and some romance.  What more could you want?
The characters were wonderful.  They were complex, varied, and flawed human beings.  Everyone was some level of screwed-up and they had to help each other out.  The character development was gradual, subtle, and just wonderful!
I can't tell you how strongly I would recommend this book.  A test for how much I enjoy a book for me is always whether I would tell my friends at school to read it, many of them who aren't big book nerds.  This is definitely one that I will and already have recommended for them.  I can almost guarantee that you'll love it.  Give it a shot!

Phrase:
Princess Snuggleworm

Happy Reading!

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Dorothy Must Die (Dorothy Must Die #1) by Danielle Paige 3.5/5 stars

Hey, guys!  I actually got this book because I wanted to listen to an audiobook while driving myself to school and this was one of the few the library had around when I was looking.  I'd heard of it, thought the title alone promised at least a little fun, and I heard Danielle Paige speak at a panel at Yall Fest and she seemed likable enough.  I liked it, but it lacked a little extra pizzazz.  Since I listened to the audiobook version, I apologize if I misspell a name.  I'll let you know what I thought about the presenter though!

The Cover:

The Cover:
It shows Dorothy's stereotypical outfit with red writing over it that looks like blood.  Plus, the title is great.  It tells you exactly what this book is about.  The cover's straight-forward and mildly sinister, just like this book.  It's a great cover!  Definitely one of my favorites. A+

Official Description:

I didn't ask for any of this. I didn't ask to be some kind of hero.

But when your whole life gets swept up by a tornado - taking you with it - you have no choice but to go along, you know?Sure, I've read the books. I've seen the movies. I know the song about the rainbow and the happy little bluebirds. But I never expected Oz to look like this. To be a place where Good Witches can't be trusted, Wicked Witches may just be the good guys, and winged monkeys can be executed for acts of rebellion. There's still a yellow brick road - but even that's crumbling.What happened? Dorothy.They say she found a way to come back to Oz. They say she seized power and the power went to her head. And now no one is safe.My name is Amy Gumm - and I'm the other girl from Kansas.I've been recruited by the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked.I've been trained to fight.And I have a mission.

My Review:

Get prepared to have everything innocent about The Wizard of Oz ruined for you in this book.  The Scarecrow who just got a brain? Is now using it for human experimentation.  The cowardly lion? He's now using his courage to attack and terrify citizens.  Flying monkeys?  They're under the control of Dorothy and Glinda, the supposed "Good" Witch of the North.  And Dorothy? She's just a sadist.  

Reading this book is like having your childhood slowly ruined in a fantasy/dystopian/spy book filled with quite a bit of gore.  It was actually pretty cool.  Basically, if you mixed Oz with the world of 1984 and add some magic in and then replaced Dorothy with a more sarcastic version of herself, you would get this book.  

Amy Gumm was a very snarky character.  She was incredibly cynical in every situation, which was great.  You get a lot of her insight into the scenes.  Possibly too much, in fact.  At points, the story slowed down a bit too much because of it.  

The supporting characters were all unique, and I enjoyed seeing all of their varying personalities.  I liked a bunch of them more than Amy, but the author seemed to avoid any attachment to these supporting characters in any way possible.  As soon as you grew to like a character, they would disappear by dying, leaving to go on a mission, or quite literally disappearing.  It was actually kind of irritating.  We would be introduced to a unique and interesting character only to have them be gone in 20 pages.  

The plot was interesting.  I was interested to see just how Dorothy's murder would be arranged and how Amy and/or one of the other characters would escape whatever sticky situation they found themselves in.  

That being said, the ending of book one was... anticlimatic to say the least.  It was as if this was meant to be a stand-alone book, they realized there could be a sequel, and they changed the climax to make this happen.  However, that made a good third of this book completely pointless.  Amy acted completely out of character, and then, it ended, only to be continued in The Wicked Will Rise.  

All in all, it was a unique take on The Wizard of Oz that was funny at times and makes you rethink some stories from your childhood.  

Would I recommend it?  I don't think so.  If I saw someone pick it up at Barnes & Noble and debate whether or not to buy it, I wouldn't snatch it from their hands and tell them no (*cough* Fangirl *cough*) but I wouldn't tell them to definitely pick it either.  If you like Wizard of Oz or have nothing else on your list, go for it.  It's not my first recommendation though.  (Click here for my top recommendations!)

Will I read the sequel, The Wicked Will Rise?  I can't tell you that, either.  I probably will if I can't find more interesting audiobooks for my car rides to and from school, but I won't go out of my way.  

Audiobook Review:

The reader of this audiobook, Devon Sorvari, was great!  Her voice wasn't at all irritating, which I think is difficult to find in female narrators.  She did a good job distinguishing characters and "performing" her role as a snarky teenager.  Her presentation was great.  

Phrases:

Don't touch the shoes.

Goth munchkin.

Happy Reading!

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(Note:  I'm just going to post on here whenever I read a new book, so I might post a bunch of books in one week or none for two weeks.  It won't be very regular.  I'll post as much as I can, though!  You can be sure to see each new review at either my Twitter or Facebook, so be sure to follow those if you want the most recent updates!)