[BOOK REVIEW] Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Title:  Illuminae

Authors:  Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Genre:  Science Fiction

Year Published: 2015

Number of Pages: 599 pages 

Date Read: 7/23/2019 

Series: The Illuminae Files #1 

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf

Source:  Purchased

Content Rating:  Ages 16+ (Some Gory Violence and Deaths)

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository 

“You have me. Until the last star in the galaxy dies, you have me.”

Oh, my goodness! How could I wait so long to finally tackle this book?  I have been hearing nothing but awesome things about this book! And yet, because there were so many other books that I wanted to read, I did not have the time to read this book (until now)!  “Illuminae” which was written by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff was certainly an absolute blast to read!

Kady Grant thought that breaking up with her ex-boyfriend Ezra Mason was the worst thing to happen to her.  Then, her planet ends up getting invaded by a mega corporation called BeiTech and she and Ezra are forced to flee from their planet and go on the spaceship Hypatia to escape from the enemy spaceship Lincoln.  But things start to get worse for the crew of Hypatia when it turns out that there is a deadly virus that is spreading across the ship that is turning the people into hideous monsters.  Not to mention, the fleet’s AI AIDAN has gone berserk and has started killing people on board in order to protect them from Lincoln’s forces.  Now, it is up to Kady and Ezra to save the ship Hypatia from the virus, AIDAN and Lincoln itself.

Wow!  I never would have expected to enjoy this book as much as I did!  Both Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff did a fantastic job at writing this book!  The narrative was highly creative as the story is mostly told through various documents that the commanders of the Hypatia have collected and also through diagrams of the ship and email messages from each of the characters.  I have never read a book where the narrative was mostly comprised of documents and diagrams and it made this book so intriguing to read! I also loved the way that both Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff put in so much intensity into the story as I was literally sitting on the edge of my seat when almost everyone was getting affected by the virus and when AIDAN started going berserk.  It seemed like almost everyone was going to die in this book due to all the deaths that occurred and that just made this book so exciting to read.  I also really loved all of the characters in this book, especially Kady and Ezra as they were extremely well-written.  I loved the fact that Kady Grant was such a strong female protagonist who was able to use her hacking skills to do everything in her power to save the people of Hypatia.  Ezra Mason was another character that I really liked as his sarcastic personality was hilarious to read and I really loved his relationship with Kady as they seem to have a love / hate relationship with each other, but still care about each other deep down.  I especially loved the way that Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff wrote the dialogues in this book, as most of the characters have snarky personalities.  And yet, they all sounded so relatable to me, especially when they are trying to figure out how they will survive this all-out war that they are forcefully thrown into.

For anyone who does not like strong violence and death, there is quite a bit of violent moments in this book, especially during the scenes where the virus breaks out and the infected started attacking people in increasingly brutal ways.  There is also a lot of deaths in this book due to said virus that might upset some people.

Overall, “Illuminae” is easily one of the most creative and exciting books that I have ever read and if you love science fiction books with a bit of romance thrown in, then I would definitely recommend this book!  Now, I am off to read the second book in the series, “Gemina!”

* 2015 Australian Book Industry Award (ABIA) for Older Children (ages 8-14)

* 2015 Aurealis Award for Best Science Fiction Novel

* 2015 Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction

* 2016 Audie Award for Multi-Voiced Performance

* 2016 The Inky Awards Nominee for Gold Inky

* 2016 The Inky Awards Shortlist for Gold Inky

* 2016 Premio El Templo de las Mil Puertas Nominee for Mejor novela extranjera perteneciente a saga

* 2017 Rhode Island Teen Book Award Nominee

* 2018 Evergreen Teen Book Award Nominee

* 2019 Lincoln Award Nominee

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• The Martian by Andy Weir

• Red Rising by Pierce Brown

• Golden Son by Pierce Brown

Book Depository

[BOOK REVIEW] Spider-Man/Deadpool Volume 0: Don’t Call it a Team-Up by Joe Kelly

Title:  Spider-Man/Deadpool Volume 0: Don't Call it a Team-Up

Author:  Joe Kelly, Fabian Nicieza, Daniel Way, Kevin Shinick, Brian Posehn, Gerry Duggan, and Christopher Hastings

Artist:  Pete Woods, Patrick Zircher, Eric Canete, Carlo Barberi, Aaron Kuder, Mike Hawthorne and Jacopo Camagni

Genre:  Action / Superheroes / Humor

Year Published: 2016

Year Read:  2018

Publisher:  Marvel Comics

Source:   Purchased

Content Rating:  Ages 13+ (Some Language and Violence)

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository

Introduction:

Now, I personally had never picked up a “Deadpool” comic book before since at the time, I was not that interested in reading anything about “Deadpool” despite his huge popularity.  It wasn’t until I watched the “Deadpool” movie starring Ryan Reynolds that I started getting (a bit) interested in the character and I have been trying to figure out where I needed to start reading about “Deadpool” in the comics. So, yeah thanks “Deadpool” movie for getting me into the comics (a bit)!  I had gotten several different recommendations from fellow readers and some have said that I should read either Joe Kelly’s run or Daniel Way’s run.  Since neither run was really available to me at the moment, I had decided to read this collection of stories where Deadpool teams up with Spider-Man called “Spider-Man/Deadpool Volume 0: Don’t Call it a Team-Up” since I had been reading lots of “Spider-Man” comics before this and I must say that this collection was quite good!

What is this story about?

This is basically a collection of issues collected where Spider-Man and Deadpool teamed up with each other.  So, here are the issues featured in this collection and my ratings for each one:

Deadpool (1997): Issue #11:  ★★★★★

Written by: Joe Kelly

Artwork by: Pete Woods

When Deadpool and his prisoner Blind Al ended up going through time, they ended up in a timeline that takes place in the 47^th issue of the 1960s “Amazing Spider-Man” series. In order to not to change the timeline, Deadpool and Blind Al have to masquerade as Peter Parker and Aunt May respectively.  They also found out that the only way to get out of this timeline is to find a younger Weasel and convince him to build a time machine for them to go back into.

Cable and Deadpool: Issue #24: ★★1/2

Written by: Fabian Nicieza

Artwork by: Patrick Zircher

Cable and Deadpool are working together to obtain a secret project called “Cone of Silence” and Deadpool is sent out to provide a distraction towards Spider-Man so that the plan can go by smoothly.

Amazing Spider-Man: Issue #611: ★★ 1/2

Written by: Joe Kelly

Artwork by: Eric Canete

Deadpool and Spider-Man ended up getting into an insult match when they meet up with each other again, while a more sinister plan involving Madame Web is brewing in the background.

Deadpool (2008): Issues #19-21: ★★★★★

Written by: Daniel Way

Artwork by: Carlo Barberi

When a mysterious hit man (I am sorry, hit monkey) ends up killing various people in the city who have committed crimes, Spider-Man and Deadpool are forced to work together in order to take down this hit monkey once and for all!

Avenging Spider-Man: Issues #12-13:  ★★★ 1/2

Written by: Kevin Shinick

Artwork by: Aaron Kuder

When Spider-Man ended up being trapped in his own dreams, it turns out that Deadpool had set him up by making him free his client the Hypno-Hustler from jail.  The Hypno-Hustler then ends up making Spider-Man hallucinate in fighting his foes and it is not long before the Hypno-Hustler hypnotizes Deadpool too!

Deadpool (2012): Issue #10:  ★★★

Written by: Brian Posehn and Gerry Duggan

Artwork by: Mike Hawthorne

Deadpool ends up working with Spider-Man in order to take down Daniel Gump.  But little does Deadpool know, Spider-Man’s body is currently being taken over by Doc Ock, after Peter Parker had “died” in the previous issues.

Deadpool Annual: Issue #2: ★★★★ 1/2

Written by: Christopher Hastings

Artwork by: Jacopo Camagni

When the Chameleon caused Spider-Man to hallucinate various innocent people into being the Chameleon, Deadpool ends up taking over Spider-man’s mantle in order to locate the Chameleon and save Peter from these hallucinations.

What I loved about this story:

The writing: I hit the jackpot in actually getting a collection of stories that features both Deadpool and Spider-Man.  I have been trying to find a way to get into the “Deadpool” comics, whether it would be through one run or through a collection of issues that would help me determine which run I should spend my time reading. Well, I must say that I found some of the issues in this collection to be pretty entertaining!  Some of my favorite issues in this volume (judging by the ratings that I gave for each issue) are “Deadpool (1997) Issue #11,” “Deadpool (2008) Issues #19-21,” and “Deadpool Annual Issue #2.” In “Deadpool (1997),” I loved the way that Joe Kelly wrote the time traveling story arc with Deadpool going back in time to the original 1960s “Amazing Spider-Man” run as I was laughing my head off with Deadpool acting like his crude self while dressing up as Peter Parker while insulting Peter’s friends (especially with him making fun of the Osborns’ hairstyles)!  In “Deadpool (2008),” I loved the way that Daniel Way wrote both Deadpool and Spider-Man as it was entertaining seeing them work together to take down a hitman who happens to be a monkey!  In “Deadpool Annual,” I loved the way that Christopher Hastings wrote this story as it was quite entertaining seeing Deadpool act like Spider-Man and seeing his enthusiasm at taking over the mantle while Spider-Man is knocked out.  I was happy to see Deadpool and Spider-Man interact with each other since I always wanted to see how Spider-Man and Deadpool would act around each other.  It was interesting seeing Spider-Man be the sane, straight man to Deadpool’s wacky wise guy as it made their relationship with each other much more entertaining!

The artwork:  The artwork in this volume was quite creative and gorgeous to look at, especially the artwork done by Pete Woods, Carlo Barberi and Jacopo Camagni.  I especially love the artwork in “Deadpool (1997)” as I loved the mixture of the modern artwork with the 1960’s artwork and it just made the story even funnier whenever we hear Deadpool’s crude comments clash with the family friendly 1960s artwork.

What made me feel uncomfortable about this story:

The reason why I gave this volume a four-star rating was because even though there were a couple of issues that I did enjoy in this collection, there were other issues that I did not enjoy as much and that brings the rating down a bit.  I did not enjoy the “Cable and Deadpool” and the “Amazing Spider-Man” issues that much since they were pretty bland to me and there were some issues like “Deadpool (2012)” that were just okay.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, “Spider-Man / Deadpool Volume 0: Don’t Call It a Team-Up” is a great volume for anyone who is a huge fan of both Spider-Man and Deadpool and I would definitely give this volume a try!

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• Hawkeye: My Life as a Weapon Volume 1 by Matt Fraction

• X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga by Chris Claremont
• Astonishing X-Men: Gifted by Joss Whedon

[ARC REVIEW] Book Love by Debbie Tung (@AndrewsMcMeel , @WheresMyBubble)

Title:  Book Love

Author:  Debbie Tung

Artist:  Debbie Tung

Genre:  Books / Humor

Year Published: 2019

Year Read:  2018

Publisher:  Andrews McMeel Publishing

Source:   eARC (NetGalley)

Content Rating:  Ages 8+ (Nothing Objectionable)

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository

I would like to thank NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Introduction:

When I saw this title over at NetGalley, I was like “What? There’s actually a graphic novel that explores about how much some people love books?”  Well, of course I had to check this graphic novel out since reading is my number one passion in the world and I wanted to see if this graphic novel gets my book senses tingling!  “Book Love” is a graphic novel that is written and illustrated by Debbie Tung and it definitely earns the reputation of being one of the few graphic novels that actually shows just how important and fun reading is for everyone!

What is this story about?

This graphic novel basically details the love that bookworms have for books such as getting upset when they had just finished a good book, but have to wait a whole year for the sequel to come out.  And the exhilaration of smelling brand-new books in the bookstores and also the fact that books can take you to different places that you have never been to before!

What I loved about this story:

Debbie Tung’s writing:  Wow…just wow…Debbie Tung has certainly done an excellent job at writing this graphic novel as it is rare that I read a graphic novel that is all about the wonderful world of reading instead of being about superheroes or slice of life stories.  I loved the way that Debbie Tung explores what the world is like for a bookworm and how books are so essential in their lives.  I just loved the energy and love for reading that Debbie Tung showcased in this graphic novel by using a woman in the lead role and whenever the woman in the story showed excitement for reading, I felt that excitement along with her!  There were many different scenarios in this story that really called out to me, such as a situation where the woman in the story went to the bookstore to buy the second book in the series after she finished reading the first book.  But then she realizes that the bookstore ran out of copies of the second book and that they would have to order the second book from an online store, but it would take over five days for the book to arrive!  Oh man!  I remembered those days when I had to wait a long time for a book in a series to arrive in my mail because the bookstore did not have the whole series!  I really loved the humor that Debbie Tung incorporated into this book as the woman in this story was the highlight as she was such an excitable and hilarious character who has such an exaggerated reaction to books. But at the same time, is highly relatable to the audience as she shows the same love and joy that bookworms have for books!

Debbie Tung’s artwork:  Debbie Tung’s artwork is hilarious and creative to look at as she does a great job at showing the excitement that the woman in the story feels about books!  I loved the way that Debbie Tung drew the woman in the story as the woman is constantly being shown with an excited look on her face whenever she comes across books.  I especially loved the artwork of the woman having large puppy dog eyes whenever she is experiencing something beautiful about reading.  I also loved the artwork for the scenes where the woman is imagining herself floating in space as there is so much attention to detail to the starry skies of space.  I liked the fact that the artwork is done in black and white as I still experience the wonderful world of books through the black and white colorings of the artwork.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, “Book Love” is a truly fantastic graphic novel that really speaks out to bookworms everywhere!  If you are looking for a graphic novel that details the joy and wonder of reading, then this is definitely the one for you!

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[BOOK REVIEW] Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan

Title:  Tender Morsels

Author: Margo Lanagan

Genre: Fantasy

Year Published: 2007

Number of Pages: 436 pages

Date Read: 7/19/2010

Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers   

Source:  Library

Content Rating:  Ages 18+ (Sex Scenes and Rape Scenes)

Trigger Warning: Rape Scenes

Buy on:   Amazon  //  Book Depository 

After I read Margo Lanagan’s “Black Juice,” I thought that Margo Lanagan’s “Tender Morsels” was going to be a horrible read.  However, I was quite impressed with how improved the plot and characters are in this book are from “Black Juice.”  “Tender Morsels” is a Printz Honor Book by Margo Lanagan and it is about how a suffering woman named Liga is mysteriously sent to a world where everything is perfect and friendly and raises her two daughters, Branza and Urdda, in this heaven.  However, when wild bears and tiny men come to Liga’s heavenly world, Liga and her two daughters realized that there is another world different from the world they live in.  “Tender Morsels” might be too dark and upsetting for some readers to handle, but the fantasy elements of this book might enchant some readers.

I must admit that after I read “Black Juice,” I thought that this book was going to be no better. However, I was surprised at how much improved this book was in character development and plot development than in “Black Juice.”  Margo Lanagan has done an excellent job at making this story extremely dramatic and somewhat frightening as the characters, especially Liga, go through a series of horrifying events that will have many readers cringing at the description of these events and many readers will definitely feel sympathy for the main character Liga as she goes through so many horrendous situations during her life.  Also, readers who love dark fantasy elements will definitely enjoy this book as there is a good amount of fantasy elements dealing with other world barriers and has an extremely dark tone to the story that would intrigued many readers.

There are three main issues that I had with this book and they included strong violence, some rape scenes and confusing narration.  There are many violent scenes in this book that readers who are sensitive to violence might not be able to handle and these violent scenes include a brutal murder scene, which I will not go into too much detail since I do not want to spoil the book for people who want to read this book, but the violence is extremely graphic as Margo Lanagan goes into great detail about how one of the characters is murdered.  Also, there are two rape scenes in this book that many readers (including myself) who do not approve of rape scenes might not be able to handle.  The issue that really stood out the most in this book is the narration as the story switches from Liga’s perspective to the bear’s perspective on the story and that will confuse many readers.  Liga’s side of the story is pretty straightforward and the characters are well developed and the plot is more interesting, however whenever we get to the bear’s side of the story, there are several different characters speaking on their experiences as the bear character and it is extremely frustrating to read through since you do not know which character is speaking their tale.

“Tender Morsels” is an interesting tale about the dangers of reality versus fantasy worlds and many readers who are fans of dark fantasy books will definitely love this book.  I gave this book three and a half stars because the violence is extremely graphic and the narration is a bit too frustrating to read through as it constantly switches from Liga’s story to the bear’s story and I would have gladly just stick with Liga’s side of the story since her story is much more understanding and interesting than the bear’s side of the story.

* 2008 Shirley Jackson Award Nominee for Novel (Finalist)
* 2008 James Tiptree Jr. Award Honor List
* 2009 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel
* 2009 Ditmar Award for Best Novel
* 2009 Michael L. Printz Award Nominee
* 2010 Sakura Medal Nominee for High School Book

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• East by Edith Pattou

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[BOOK REVIEW] East by Edith Pattou

Title:  East

Author: Edith Pattou

Genre: Fantasy

Year Published: 2003

Number of Pages: 498 pages

Date Read: 12/2/2010

Series: East #1

Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers  

Source:  Library

Content Rating:  Ages 13+ (Some Intense Scenes)

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository 

I never would have thought that there could be a whole chapter book retelling of a classic fairy tale other than Shannon Hale’s “The Goose Girl.”  Well, I have just recently stumbled upon this book called “East” that happens to be a great retelling of a classic fairy tale!  “East” is a retelling of a classic Scandinavian folktale called “East of the Sun West of the Moon” by Edith Pattou and anyone who is a huge fan of fairy tales will definitely get a kick out of this book!

Rose is the youngest child of seven children and because she was a born a North born child, according to her mother, she always loved exploring her homeland Njord and getting into trouble.  One day, however, a mysterious white bear comes in and promises Rose’s family that he will make them rich if they agree to let Rose come away with him to his cave.  At first, Rose’s family did not want her to leave with the white bear, but Rose decided to go with the white bear to save her family and so she and the white bear traveled for days until they reached the white bear’s magnificent cave where Rose lived for many years.  During her years with the white bear, Rose realizes that a mysterious stranger has been sleeping in bed next to her and when she discovers the stranger’s true identity, she embarks on a journey to save her true love from a terrible curse!

Beautiful! Simply Beautiful!  I never would have thought that I would have read a retelling of a popular folktale that was written so beautifully!  Edith Pattou has certainly done an excellent job at retelling the ancient Scandinavian folktale.  I loved the way that Edith Pattou added more elements to this story such as adding background information about each character in the book, especially Rose and we actually get to read about the other point of views of each character associated with Rose’s life like her father, her brother Neddy, the White Bear and the Troll Queen.  What I loved the most about this book is that each chapter is split up into a different character’s point of view.  Like for example, you have one chapter entitled “Rose” and the chapter is narrated by Rose herself and her point of view on the situation she is thrown into and then another chapter would be entitled “White Bear” and the white bear is narrating the chapter, and I really love this setup because you can actually get a feel of what each character is thinking about the situation at hand.  Another thing that I loved about this book was the relationships between all the characters in this book, especially between Rose, Neddy and her father.  I loved the way that Neddy and Rose’s father cared so much about Rose that they were willing to put their lives at stake in order to rescue her from any kind of danger.  I also loved the fairy tale elements in this story, especially since this story is based off of “East of the Sun West of the Moon” and I am a huge fan of many fairy tales and folktales, so the fairy tale elements in this story (enchantment, epic journey) are always relaxing to me.  I also think many people would enjoy this story if they enjoyed “The Golden Compass” since this book does have a similar element to “The Golden Compass” which is a girl riding a white bear on her journey.

Now the reason why I gave this book a four and a half star rating instead of a five star rating is because the story tends to drag on too long in certain scenes such as during the scenes where Rose is exploring the cave of the white bear and she is describing every single item she comes across.  It is alright to describe some items that have significance to the story, but to describe every other item that has nothing to do with the main point of the story does become tiresome really fast.

Overall “East” is truly an absolute masterpiece in its own right as it is filled with drama, fantasy and romance that anyone who is a huge fan of fairy tales will instantly take a liking to.

* 2004 Michigan Library Association Thumbs Up! Award Nominee
* 2008 Rebecca Caudill Young Reader's Book Award Nominee

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