Novel Review: Grace by Elizabeth Scott

Rating (Out of 5): ~4

Genre: YA Realistic

Publisher: Dutton (Penguin)

Release Date: 2010

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Teaser Tuesday.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Grace was raised to be an Angel, a herald of death by suicide bomb. But she refuses to die for the cause, and now Grace is on the run, daring to dream of freedom. In search of a border she may never reach, she travels among malevolent soldiers on a decrepit train crawling through the desert. Accompanied by the mysterious Kerr, Grace struggles to be invisible, but the fear of discovery looms large as she recalls the history and events that delivered her uncertain fate.

Told in spare, powerful prose by acclaimed author Elizabeth Scott, this tale of a dystopian near future will haunt readers long after they’ve reached the final page.

The Cover:

I think this cover is fitting. It's not especially pretty to me, as I don't really like the way the face with all the flames look, but I think it works. It represents the book really well, and it is eye-catching.

Quotes:

• "'You do what you must in order to survive.’” (Hardback, pg. 89)
• "Now neither of us do because life shouldn’t be something you want to hide. It shouldn’t be something you turn away from.” (Pg. 184) (On living being shameful, as they’ve been taught.)
• "That life is only about death.
  But it shouldn’t be.
  Life is about being alive. It is about living.” (Pg. 195)

Review

This was a really fast, very interesting, read. I was surprised, and I liked it.

This is a really small book, with large spacing, so it went by in, like, two hours. But it was still a really interesting, deep read. I knew what it was about going in, but I was still surprised. Maybe that’s because I don’t read a lot of books on this topic, or even close to it, but still.

Grace’s journey was really interesting. It’s sad, and kind of frustrating, the traditions of where she lives. It’s hard to imagine, and it just seems hard.

This book was very deep, given what Grace has gone through, and what she has decided to do. On her journey to escape, she meets a guy close to her in age, Kerr. His story was also really interesting to read about, and really horrible. It was all kind of horrible, though.

Despite the possible hint of romance in the synopsis, there isn’t any in this book. Her and Kerr, instead, talk. They find out about each other, and talk about what they’ve done and what’s happened to them, even if they’re reluctant and in hiding. And I’m glad that it wasn’t a romance, because I think it worked out better this way. Them just forming a kind-of, maybe bond, I think, worked better for them.

I was surprised by this book, but I really liked it. It was deep and kind of beautiful, but also really sad. It’s definitely worth picking up.

Manga Review: Grand Guignol Orchestra, Volume 2, by Kaori Yuki

              Rating (Out of 5): ~3

Publisher: VIZ Media (Shojo Beat)

Volumes: 5

Goodreads Synopsis:

Reads R to L (Japanese Style) T+ audience.

Lucille is loving heading up the traveling Royal Orchestra roving from town to town entertaining the masses and making money. But now he and his Orchestra have met their match: people infected with the Guignol Virus, turnings them into zombie dolls intent on killing all humans!
Now that Lucille and the musicians know what they are up against (the zombie-esque Guignols!), they have to figure out how to stop them! Kaori Yuki's new epic adventure offers up not one but two new storylines to savor with "The Queen and the Jester" and the title story, "TragÉdie Lyrique." Is the orchestra any closer to stopping the Guignol infestation?

Available on Amazon.

Review:

I remember liking the first volume of this quite a bit, and wanting to know more about the characters, but this volume was not all that exciting or good for me. Maybe it’s because I waited so long to read it, but I’m not as excited for it as before. I still plan to finish the series, since there are only five books, and I love Kaori Yuki, but it might take me a while.

There’s quite a bit of violence and killing of zombies (among others) in this book, but that’s not a surprise, since this is a zombie manga. Also, Yuki usually has some violent things happening in her books.

In the first two chapters, we see some of Lucille’s (the vocalist’s) past. He had two friends when he was little, but there was some kind of spat that they have not moved on from. And then the group is summoned to see the queen, whom they are working for. The queen is a bit crazy, and not at all happy with Lucille. Because she is his childhood friend, as is the guy working for her, who spars with Lucille, because the queen loved(loves?) Lucille, while the other guy loves her and only ever wanted her to pay attention to him. So, the queen’s a bit psychotic, and the guy should have smarted up, and there isn’t a very happy ending to this plot. Although I’m sure we’ll be seeing her again, since she did not die, and the group is still working for her.

In the last two chapters, Lucille and Eles (the actually-a-girl pianist and protagonist of the series) have to go undercover as nuns at some convent, where some suspicious things have been happening. And, yea, some pretty suspicious things happen, because the head nun and their ‘goddess’ or whatever are crazy, and they don’t like it when people question them, like Lucille and Eles have been doing. There’s a killer piano, and some hidden keys and some guy in a mask is sneaking around and watching Lucille and the group (the other two are sleeping in the car, away from the convent). The guy in the mask is, I’m pretty sure, their old pianist, and he’s upset with all of them.

The volume ends with a cliffhanger, of the masked guy holding a knife to Eles’ neck, threatening Lucille, and kind of/somewhat telling us (Eles) that Lucille is hiding things, and he plans to maybe make Eles a sacrifice in order to overthrow the queen? I’m not too clear on that, but I’m sure that it will be cleared up in the next volume. Looking forward to that, a bit.

Thinking back on the book now, I am still a bit curious about the past of the other characters, although I wasn’t while reading. This book wasn’t that bad. It was a bit messy, but Yuki tends to write books with storylines that are a little messy, and I don’t mind too much; it’s still rather interesting.

It might take a while, but I do plan on getting the next volume, and reading the rest of the series.

Novel Review: Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Genre: YA Contemporary Romance
Rating (Out of 5): ~4.5

Publisher: Penguin (Speak)

Spoilers: No/Very minor.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Anna is looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. Which is why she is less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris - until she meets Etienne St. Clair: perfect, Parisian (and English and American, which makes for a swoon-worthy accent), and utterly irresistible. The only problem is that he's taken, and Anna might be, too, if anything comes of her almost-relationship back home. As winter melts into spring, will a year of romantic near - misses end with the French kiss Anna - and readers - have long awaited?

Something Specific:
That I Loved:

• "And then my mother does something that, even after all of the paperwork and plane tickets and presentations, I don't see coming. Something that would've happened in a year anyway, once I left for college, but that no matter how many days or months or years I've yearned for it, I am still not prepared for when it actually happens.
                "My mother leaves. I am alone."  (Paperback, pg. 8) (This is a passage that I really loved when I first read the book; that really stood out to me, especially because I found that I could relate, that a similar goodbye had happened to me around the same time I read it.)

Review:

I really enjoyed this book. I’ve had it for a while, have wanted to read it for even longer, and had even planned to read it for the last couple months, but for some reason never got around to actually doing it. When packing books to bring with me on vacation, I was pretty set on bringing this one with me, and I’m glad. Sadly, I planned to put it off till later on the trip, but ended up reading it rather fast instead. And I’m really glad that I finally got to it. It really shouldn’t have taken me so long.

I’d heard a lot of good things about this, including from several authors that I like, and it sounded like my type of book. It has big focus on romance, even if it’s the kind that is pushed off for a long time, it’s funny, with a type of humor I enjoy, the characters were well done, the romance was put together really well and had a good pace to it. This book is filled with things I like.

Anna, the main character, is forced to move to France to go to a boarding school, where she ends up meeting St. Clair and his friends, who she quickly forms a friendship with. She’s upset about leaving her best friend back home, and her mother and brother, and is mad at her rich, predictable-romance writing father who sent her there. It takes her a little while to get used to everything, but she does, especially with the help of St. Clair.

I liked Anna. She wasn’t whiny or too insecure or selfish. She wasn’t completely selfless or anything, either, though. She was nice, as nice as she could be, while disagreeing with people and trying to deal with a new place, new language, being away from home, and liking someone who has a girlfriend already. I really liked St. Clair, and her and him together.

Their relationship was really well done, and I was impressed with that. They got to know each other, turned into best friends, even while trying to ignore the flirting and feelings that they obviously had for each other. Neither of them was perfect, and they both knew it; they were perfect for each other, or whatever. A lot of the book was spent with them getting to know each other, and none of it was boring or dragged out; the pace was pretty perfect. There were some parts, of course, where I just wanted them to get together already, and there was so much teasing, but overall it was good.

Along with getting to know St. Clair, we also get to know their friends. All of who had actual personalities, and most of whom I liked. There were several scenes where Anna is just hanging out with some of the others, which I liked; her entire life was not centered on her feelings on St. Clair. She also went home one time in the book, so we got to meet her brother and her best friend, and the guy she maybe likes, and got to hear more about her parents.

The timeline in the book goes through the whole school year, so a lot happened. I’m not going to go into too much detail, though, and let you find those things out yourself (when you read the book, ‘cause you should, if you haven’t already).

The ending was really good. We find out what their plans for later are, and those seem to be very good and should work out really well. We also got to see them as an actual couple, and I found them a bit adorable.

I just really liked everything about this book. The more I think about it, the more I find reasons why I liked it. I was expecting to like it, but was surprised by how much and how well done everything in it was. It was pretty much amazing, has kind of made me fall in love with it, and I want the next one immediately, and don’t plan on waiting too long to get it. I want it that bad.