Review: Nobody by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Title: Nobody
Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Publisher: EgmontUSA
Publication Date: January 22, 2012
Links: Amazon | Goodreads
Source: Publicist

There are people in this world who are Nobody. No one sees them. No one notices them. They live their lives under the radar, forgotten as soon as you turn away.

That’s why they make the perfect assassins.

The Institute finds these people when they’re young and takes them away for training. But an untrained Nobody is a threat to their organization. And threats must be eliminated.

Sixteen-year-old Claire has been invisible her whole life, missed by the Institute’s monitoring. But now they’ve ID’ed her and send seventeen-year-old Nix to remove her. Yet the moment he lays eyes on her, he can’t make the hit. It’s as if Claire and Nix are the only people in the world for each other. And they are—because no one else ever notices them.

Meh. I liked the concept of Nobody, but the execution didn't do it for me.

Claire is angsty and Nix is self-loathing, which is understandable. But the story spends a little too much time on that and not enough time on the cool stuff like assassins and conspiracies and action. The romance is an insta-love and, though it makes a little sense that they'd each be immediately drawn into a desire for some kind of an intimacy with the only other person in the world who can actually see them, remember them, care about them, and that they would be craving that attention and affection after many years of not having a connection with anyone, I still feel like the relationship development is too intense, too fast. The story takes place in about a week and already there were I love yous and forevers being thrown around. Character development is something that I wanted more of, beyond the feelings of loneliness, angst and self-loathing. I would rather have seen less time spent on the angst and self-loathing (even though I think that stuff should definitely be in there), and more time spent on the working toward a common goal and getting to know each other as the characters develop through their personalities and interactions.

The plot has a pretty quick pace, for the most part. The world building was ehh, but there were some scenes that do stand out in the mind, such as Nix's stark white room. Some of the science could have been better explained, and there were things that went beyond science that didn't make much sense at all, but still could have worked for me if those ideas and the fantastical reasoning behind them had been explored a little more/better.

There are still some fun scenes in the book that I enjoyed and it is quick and decent enough that I finished it, but overall I'm feeling pretty meh about it because I wanted more from it. Nobody had potential but unfortunately I feel like that potential was not met. Others might like the romance and find this to be an adorable story, etc., etc. But I wanted ASSASSINS. I wanted sneaky killers. I wanted vengeance, preferably of the cold and ruthless sort. And I didn't really get that. I got more fluff and less ASSASSIN, and that just wasn't what I was hoping for.

Review: Stealing Parker by Miranda Kenneally

Title: Stealing Parker
Author: Miranda Kenneally
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Publication Date: October 2, 2012
Series: Hundred Oaks #2
Links: Amazon | Goodreads
Source: Purchased

Parker Shelton pretty much has the perfect life. She's on her way to becoming valedictorian at Hundred Oaks High, she's made the all-star softball team, and she has plenty of friends. Then her mother's scandal rocks their small town and suddenly no one will talk to her.

Now Parker wants a new life.

So she quits softball. Drops twenty pounds. And she figures why kiss one guy when she can kiss three. Or four. Why limit herself to high school boys when the majorly cute new baseball coach seems especially flirty?

But how far is too far before she loses herself completely?

Color me happy when Miranda Kenneally wrote a baseball book to go along with her football book. I loved Catching Jordan, so naturally I was excited to get my hands on Stealing Parker. It's less sports and more character issues in this one. I wouldn't have minded a little more baseball, but I really liked it all the same.

Parker has grown up in a religious household. She regularly attends church. Her (former) best friend is a pastor's daughter. She talks to God on a regular basis. That is not to say that the tone of this story is preachy. It's just the opposite, really. Many of the people at Parker's church are highly judgmental. Part of Parker's growth is coming to realize that the environment at her family's church is not a healthy or a happy one. It doesn't get down on religion either, though. Parker visits a different church in the course of the novel and it is a really great experience for her. I know there are people who don't like it when books include religion, but I do, provided that the book doesn't take a preachy tone or push an agenda, and this one doesn't do either of those things. I think that a lot of people struggle with their faith or lack of faith and question what to believe, and I like seeing characters experiencing that struggle, especially in books for teenagers, who are questioning so many things. I like to see religion represented from time to time, and I think that Miranda Kenneally handles it well, with delicacy and in a way that suits Parker's character.

Parker is such an interesting chick. She's not one of those YA heroines who lacks confidence or self-assurance. She knows she's smart. She knows she's talented. She knows she's pretty. She knows boys like her. She's flirty. She likes to kiss a lot of boys so she can be certain that people will not mistakenly think that she is like her mother. And this is where her problems begin. She has mommy issues, and she has to come to terms with what happened to her family when her mother stopped being a part of it. Luckily she has a great friend in Drew, who is pretty awesome most of the time. He doesn't let her wallow in pity. He makes efforts to include her when her girlfriends have stopped doing so. He's just a great guy, and their friendship is Parker's rock. And then there is Corndog (whose real name is Will). He's a great friend to Parker as well, though she doesn't figure that out right away. He takes some issue with her behavior, and isn't afraid to scold her for it. He also quietly makes sure that she eats enough, which nobody else bothers to do. Sam Henry and Jordan have a few cameos, as do a few of the other minor characters from Catching Jordan.

One of my favorite things about Miranda Kenneally's books is the dialogue. It's so effortlessly funny. I could read some of the conversations between her characters over and over again and it could probably pull me out of even the worst bad mood. And it doesn't feel forced - just easy and authentic. Love, love, love the dialogue.

The plot deals with Parker's struggles, many of which are internal, but it isn't slow. It moves along steadily and the humorous dialogue and fun scenes break up the tension of the problem stuff. Shit has to get real, though, before Parker can meet her potential for character growth.

I really enjoyed Stealing Parker, maybe not quite as much as Catching Jordan, but I adored Parker and Corndog's relationship development and am wholly excited for Miranda's next book.

Review: Through the Ever Night by Veronica Rossi

Title: Through the Ever Night
Author: Veronica Rossi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication Date: January 8, 2013
Series: Under the Never Sky #2
Links: Amazon | Goodreads
Source: Edelweiss, Purchased

It's been months since Aria learned of her mother's death. Months since Perry became Blood Lord of the Tides, and months since Aria last saw him.

Now Aria and Perry are about to be reunited. It's a moment they've been longing for with countless expectations. And it's a moment that lives up to all of them. At least, at first.

Then it slips away. The Tides don't take kindly to former Dwellers like Aria. And the tribe is swirling out of Perry's control. With the Aether storms worsening every day, the only remaining hope for peace and safety is the Still Blue. But does this haven truly exist?

Threatened by false friends and powerful temptations, Aria and Perry wonder, Can their love survive through the ever night?

I liked Under the Never Sky quite a bit and Through the Ever Night was one of my most anticipated books of 2013. And it definitely lived up to my expectations for awesome. I am not quite sure what I was expecting from it, but it wasn't exactly this. This was way better than what I was expecting.

There should be a disclaimer on this book for how awesome Roar is. I enjoyed his character in Under the Never Sky, but in Through the Ever Night he is even better! Roar is an amazing, unwavering friend to Aria when she desperately needs one. His heart is laid bare in this book, and I love him for it. Perry has a lot of crap to deal with in this installment, as he is now the Blood Lord of the Tides. He must earn his people's faith, trust, and respect as a leader, and he must protect them from the elements as well as invaders. He struggles with these things and with guilt over what happened with Vale. I love the growth that Perry experiences over the course of the novel and I adore him even more than before because of it. Aria has some stuff to deal with of her own - prejudices from some of the Tides, the pressure of finding out where the Still Blue is and wanting to save Talon. But she also does a great deal of worrying about and doing her best to be an emotional support to Perry as well as Roar through their ordeals. My favorite things about the character development in Through the Ever Night are the growth that we see in Perry and the strength of the friendship between Aria and Roar.

The pacing in Through the Ever Night is faster than that of Under the Never Sky. There are more Aether storms and other dangers and there's just a lot going on, and that makes it a really quick read. There's none of that second-book-in-a-series syndrome thing happening here. The Aether is further described as liquid fire in the sky that strikes in funnels like lightning, and its origins are briefly explained. The plot is fast-paced and fun and appropriately frustrating in places. The character development is great. If you've been following my reviews for a while, then you know that one of my pet peeves in books is when actionable conflict is brushed aside in favor of contrived relationship drama. That does not happen here. There are plenty of worthy conflicts to fill that role, and any relationship tensions that do arise are thoughtfully constructed and believable.

If you loved or liked Under the Never Sky in the slightest, then you need to read Through the Ever Night. It's better than its predecessor. It's a fun sci-fi lite type of book with well-written and developed characters. I loved it. I need Into the Still Blue, preferably right now.

Guest Post: Tracy Deebs on the Pandora Myth

I'd like to welcome Tracy Deebs, author of Doomed, to the blog today to talk about the Pandora myth!

Pandora’s just your average teen-glued to her cell phone and laptop, surfing Facebook and e-mailing with her friends—until the day her long-lost father sends her a link to a mysterious site featuring twelve photos of her as a child. Unable to contain her curiosity, Pandora enters the site, where she is prompted to play her favorite virtual-reality game, Zero Day. This unleashes a global computer virus that plunges the whole world into panic: suddenly, there is no Internet. No cell phones. No utilities, traffic lights, hospitals, law enforcement. Pandora teams up with handsome stepbrothers Eli and Theo to enter the virtual world of Zero Day. Simultaneously, she continues to follow the photographs from her childhood in an attempt to beat the game and track down her father—her one key to saving the world as we know it. Part The Matrix, part retelling of the Pandora myth, Doomed has something for gaming fans, dystopian fans, and romance fans alike.

Amazon | Goodreads

Thanks so much for hosting me today—I really appreciate it!

The myth of Pandora, curiosity, and consequences

Pandora has always been a favorite of mine in Greek mythology, but I’ve always thought she kind of got a bad rap. In the real Pandora myth, Prometheus (Theo in Doomed) and Epimetheus (Eli in Doomed) were charged with creating all the creatures on earth. Epimetheus, the impetuous one, created things like the platypus and the sloth and the hippopotamus while Prometheus labored and labored over only one creature. The gods gave them a certain number of gifts to give out to these creatures that they created and by the time that Prometheus was done with his creation—humanity—Eli had used all the gifts on the other animals. So Prometheus stole fire from the gods as his gift for humanity and the gods’ answer was to create Pandora to punish him. Which hardly seems like it was her fault, right?

So Pandora was created by Zeus and programmed with insatiable curiosity for the express purpose of punishing Prometheus. Of course, he’s the smart planner of the group and he figures out quickly that Zeus, who is angry with him, wouldn’t be giving him a present unless he had an ulterior motive. So he refuses Pandora, and warns his brother to do the same. But Epimetheus is more impulsive and not quite as smart as Prometheus and he accepts the gift. He marries Pandora and leaves her in possession of a box that they all know she shouldn’t open. But, again, she’s been created for just this purpose, so of course she opens the box and then she gets blamed for eternity for unleashing evil when really she was only doing what she was created to do.

Which isn’t to say there aren’t consequences for her actions, because obviously, they are. The human world suffers terribly for her actions—a fitting consequence in Zeus’s mind for possession of the fire/progress/scientific knowledge that was meant only for the gods. Pandora herself pretty much ceases to exist. And Prometheus, who thought he was smart in refusing Zeus’s gift, ends up staked to a mountain top where his liver is eaten by an eagle (or some other bird of prey depending on which version of the myth you pay attention to). Every day he is eaten alive and then at night his entrails regenerate and the whole torture starts all over again.

This is Greek mythology’s creation story for humanity and what always strikes me is the similarity between it and the Judeo-Christian creation story with the Garden of Eden and the apple. In both stories, curiosity is punished with dire consequences.

In Doomed, I try to keep as many elements of the Pandora myth as I can. Theo steals symbolic fire from the gods in the form of the game matrix and Pandora opens a link instead of a box—a link that her father created especially for her so that she could release a devastating computer worm on the world. Plus the personality and roles of the characters stay very much the same from the Greek myth to my book (Theo tries very hard to get rid of Pandora in the beginning) but there is a bit of a love triangle between Theo, Pandora and Eli—much like there was in the Greek myth. Her father also plays a powerful Zeus/godlike figure throughout the book and … well, there’s a lot more of the myth and other elements of Greek mythology in the book besides what I just mentioned, but I don’t want to ruin all the twists and turns, so I’ll leave it at that for now ;)

Thanks again for having me!

Thanks so much, Tracy, for stopping by and sharing your thoughts on Pandora with us! It's so true about Pandora and Eve. Poor curiosity - it isn't enough that it kills cats, it has to doom the world to misery too!

About Tracy

Tracy Deebs collects books, English degrees and lipsticks and has been known to forget where—and sometimes who—she is when immersed in a great novel. At six she wrote her first short story—something with a rainbow and a prince—and at seven she forayed into the wonderful world of girls lit with her first Judy Blume novel. From the first page of that first book, she knew she’d found her life-long love. Now a writing instructor at her local community college, Tracy writes YA novels that run the gamut from dark mermaids and witches to kissing clubs and techno-Armageddon stories… and she still has a soft spot for Judy Blume.

Website | Twitter

Giveaway: Nobody & Every Other Day by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Thanks to EgmontUSA and Media Masters Publicity, I have TWO Jennifer Lynn Barnes books to give away to one of you! You could win the following books:

There are people in this world who are Nobody. No one sees them. No one notices them. They live their lives under the radar, forgotten as soon as you turn away.

That’s why they make the perfect assassins.

The Institute finds these people when they’re young and takes them away for training. But an untrained Nobody is a threat to their organization. And threats must be eliminated.

Sixteen-year-old Claire has been invisible her whole life, missed by the Institute’s monitoring. But now they’ve ID’ed her and send seventeen-year-old Nix to remove her. Yet the moment he lays eyes on her, he can’t make the hit. It’s as if Claire and Nix are the only people in the world for each other. And they are—because no one else ever notices them.

Amazon | Goodreads

Sixteen-year-old Kali D'Angelo has always known she's different. Sure, she goes to high school and even attends pep rallies. But every other day, Kali becomes something else, hunting and killing demons, hellhounds and other supernatural creatures. On those days, she is indestructible.

When a supernatural creature leaves the mark of death on a popular cheerleader, Kali knows she is the only one who can save her. There is only one problem. Today, Kali is only human.

Amazon | Goodreads

The Rules:

• One winner will receive both books.
• Must be 13 years or older to win. Under 18 must have permission of parent or guardian.
• US / Canada addresses only.
• Prize provided and shipped courtesy of EgmontUSA and Media Masters Publicity.
• For more information, see Contest & Privacy Policy.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

photo © Marsha Barnes

About Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Jennifer Lynn Barnes (who mostly goes by Jen) was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She has been, in turn, a competitive cheerleader, a volleyball player, a dancer, a debutante, a primate cognition researcher, a teen model, a comic book geek, and a lemur aficionado. She's been writing for as long as she can remember, finished her first full book (which she now refers to as a "practice book" and which none of you will ever see) when she was still in high school, and then wrote Golden the summer after her freshman year in college, when she was nineteen.

Jen graduated high school in 2002, and from Yale University with a degree in cognitive science (the study of the brain and thought) in May of 2006. She was awarded a Fulbright to do post-graduate work at Cambridge, and then returned to the states, where she is hard at work on her PhD.

Website | Blog | Twitter

Good luck!

Review: The Farm by Emily McKay

Title: The Farm
Author: Emily McKay
Publisher: Berkley
Publication Date: December 4, 2012
Series: The Farm #1
Links: Amazon | Goodreads
Source: Publisher

Life was different in the Before: before vampires began devouring humans in a swarm across America; before the surviving young people were rounded up and quarantined. These days, we know what those quarantines are - holding pens where human blood is turned into more food for the undead monsters, known as Ticks. Surrounded by electrical fences, most kids try to survive the Farms by turning on each other...

And when trust is a thing of the past, escape is nearly impossible.

Lily and her twin sister, Mel, have a plan. Though Mel can barely communicate, her autism helps her notice things no one else does - like the portion of electrical fence that gets turned off every night. Getting across won't be easy, but as Lily gathers what they need to escape, a familiar face appears out of nowhere, offering to help...

Carter was a schoolmate of Lily's in the Before. Managing to evade capture until now, he has valuable knowledge of the outside world. But like everyone on the Farm, Carter has his own agenda, and he knows that behind the Ticks is an even more dangerous threat to the human race...

Vampire apocalypse! The monsters in this story are called "Ticks". I love this gross but accurate nickname for these things! Eww! But awesome. Am I right? I expected this book to also be gross but in an awesome way, and in part it is.

The perspective alternates between Lily, her autistic twin sister Mel, and Carter. I enjoyed each character and liked their chapters pretty equally. Lily is smart and sarcastic. Mel has an interesting view of the world. And Carter has something of a little desperate hero complex going on. I enjoyed Lily's wit, Mel's eccentricity, and Carter's willingness to act.

Each character's chapters have a unique point of view. Lily's chapters are written in first person past, while Mel's are first person present. It sounds a little weird, but I didn't mind it because it provided a unique perspective to Mel's autism and I get the sense that she is always living in the present. So I like that the tense shift is able to convey that. Carter's POV, though, is a limited omniscient third person past tense. I'm not a particular fan of reading one character in first person and the other in third. It doesn't necessarily bother me, but I guess I just don't get it, either. Some of the POV shifts are awkward. For example, one chapter transition goes from Lily's first person to Carter's third person, but the Carter chapter started with "They..." blah blah blah. And I had to reread the sentence because the transition didn't flow and I initially thought "They" was referring to other people rather than the group of characters I was already reading about. I kept looking for the antecedent. It bugged me. It would have been so much easier as "We".

Action and suspense in The Farm are abundant and make the pacing quick. The worldbuilding successfully creates a post-apocalyptic atmosphere and mood. The premise is completely creepy, with kids being kept on farms where their blood is taken to feed the monsters. This totally would have been a 4 or 4.5 star read if it wasn't for one thing that messed with the horror vibe and turned into something more paranormal. To me, the best thing this story had going for it was the creepy, gory, psychological, scary stuff. But then this random ability thing is thrown in, permeating the rest of the story, and that brought my adoration down a notch. I wanted and expected sci-fi/PA/horror and I got this extra infusion of paranormal, and, though I really liked the story, I feel it would have been more successful and appealing without the addition of the ability. As soon as this mysterious power came up in the story (which is fairly early - Chapter 6), my interest went from a 10 down to a 6 or so. Some of the plot occurrences felt a little forced at times or the logic wasn't properly explained. It didn't detract too much from the disturbing fun, but I still think it could have been better thought out in a few places.

Despite the paranormal ability coming in and dragging my apocalyptic excitement down a little, I still liked the book. The stuff that happens at the end is pretty crazy, and I didn't see some of it coming. I certainly enjoyed it enough to read the next one.