The first of a series, what happens when a school involves training kids with super powered abilities? This. But let’s not forget the deeper conspiracies and dangers that lurk here, because our main characters can’t.
Dreading her first day at a new school, Alex is stunned when she walks through a doorway and finds herself stranded in Medora, a fantasy world full of impossibilities. Desperate to return home, she learns that only a man named Professor Marselle can help her… but he’s missing.
While waiting for him to reappear, Alex attends Akarnae Academy, Medora’s boarding school for teenagers with extraordinary gifts. She soon starts to enjoy her bizarre new world and the friends who embrace her as one of their own, but strange things are happening at Akarnae, and Alex can’t ignore her fear that something unexpected… something sinister… is looming.
An unwilling pawn in a deadly game, Alex’s shoulders bear the crushing weight of an entire race’s survival. Only she can save the Medorans, but what if doing so prevents her from ever returning home?
I really enjoyed the world, the characters, and the plot of this book. It was fantastic. I liked the sarcastic character of Alex, and the way that she discovered this parallel world where superpowers were super common. There was an overarching mystery, there were things that we got to figure out as we went along to the world and how things run, and I thought that it was laid out really well. I enjoyed this world, I thought it was really interesting interesting, and I can’t wait to read the rest of the books in this series to discover more of it. The library was a really really cool Element. I liked the idea of unlimited and unusual adventures that they could have, while also trying to figure out the overall mysteries of the library, the school and the world. Figuring it all out with Alex was a good way to discover things. I liked her friends, I thought they were really fun and very realistic guy friends. I also liked the way that other characters and their relationships to Alex developed across the book, I’m excited to see where all of that goes in further books.
Would I Recommend This Book?
Yes, this is a great start to a series that I’m excited to continue.
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If you wanted a story about a war college, learning how to ride dragons who don’t particularly like you, and a romance that shouldn’t really exist in a world that’s getting more complicated with every book that’s written… this one might be for you.
Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders. But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away… because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them.
With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.
Graphic: Sexual Content, Violence, Death Moderate: War, Death of a Parent, Injury Minor: Vomit, Grief
My Review
This book took me by surprise. Apart from the graphic explicit content, the rest of this book was really good. I loved the idea of a dragon riding College, the way that the story unfolded was great, the way the characters interacted was really interesting and engaging. I really really enjoyed this book, and if it wasn’t for the graphic content that I am not a fan of, it would’ve been a five star book. I found the main character violet to be a stereotypical character. Having said that, I still like her. The enemies to lovers banter that we get is always fun, but I appreciated that we didn’t rush into anything when it came to that relationship. The book takes place over a fair amount of time, and I actually thought this did really well for the character development and understanding of real life relationship relationships which are not Insta love. Although there was a little bit of that in here as well. Dragons can be a little hit or miss, this one I think was handled pretty well.
Would I Recommend This Book?
Yes. I really enjoyed this book, it completely swept me away. If you don’t want open door, however, steer clear.
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A girl whose touch can kill you, imprisoned and in the middle of a war with extraordinary power… what else could you ask for a dystopian YA romance? A long series that some loved, and some hated – I read the first book to see what all the hype was about.
One touch is all it takes. One touch, and Juliette Ferrars can leave a fully grown man gasping for air. One touch, and she can kill. No one knows why Juliette has such incredible power. It feels like a curse, a burden that one person alone could never bear. But The Reestablishment sees it as a gift, sees her as an opportunity. An opportunity for a deadly weapon.
Juliette has never fought for herself before. But when she’s reunited with the one person who ever cared about her, she finds a strength she never knew she had.
I kept going back and forth on liking, hating, and tolerating this book.
The writing, I found to be sometimes nice, and other times more like drivel (eg talking about dying 5 times in one second… ugh). Often, it across as a too flowery, but I did enjoy The cross out of a “real” or raw thought followed by the one that the character thinks should be.
The story was very slow to start, and I wished it would have jumped in a few chapters earlier. Then, the story took a very different “beauty and the beast” vibe, before finally doing a sharp turn to superheroes. It was disorienting to say the least.
I know some spoilers and just CANNOT understand how we get from this book, to the final one….. I almost don’t want to know, and I’m hoping if I read any more, it won’t be a toxic relationship that we are supposed to somehow root for. I never do.
Content: violence, imprisonment, child abuse
Would I Recommend This Book?
I found this book was okay, but I prefer Whisper by Lynette Noni which holds a lot of similar elements but I thought was done a little better. It’s fine, but if you’re thinking the books will have closed doors, think again – that’s only the first two then things change.
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Okay, I claim a lot that Ted Dekker is my favourite author, but I have actually only read a handful of his books. so, I decided to change that. Here is my experience as I went through some of Ted’s other books.
Oh my word. i am updating this post as i have just finished reading ‘black’ which is the official first book (i suppose, although that’s debatable) of the circle series. this began as a trilogy, but there was a further book that was released afterwards and an entire series of worlds that stemmed from this as well.
Dang, my brain is basically broken. what the heck even is reality anyway? would the fall have still happened even if humanity was given another brand new start. what would that mean if the humans were living like that for generations and someone from our world interacted with it. just some of the questions we explored.
while i did really enjoy it, i was left pretty shattered afterwards. i also think it was super intense – more so than pretty much any of his other books i’ve ready. some of the evil was evil. some of the good was good and it was all just such a crazy ride. i have to take a break before i read any more but it was still such an amazing story and look at various ideas of good v evil and how humanity fits into that. also, can i just say – the foreshadowing with a virus that swipes through the whole world…. how did so many books consider this for such a long time and we just never really paid attention?
For me, this book was slow to start, but once we got past the first third or so, that was when I started to get more interested. There was politics, family drama, amnesia, a lot more going on as well. I think the barebones of the story were interesting, however for me it was a bit too slow, and I was not invested in either the plot nor the characters. It was still pretty well written, there was some really interesting elements, and the last third was the best part
A really interesting concept of being able to see into the future but only a short time, and mostly concerning yourself and the circumstances around you. I found that really interesting, and the way that it was explored was great. Enough explanation for me to suspend my disbelief, but not so much that I got pulled away from the story. I liked the idea of being able to look at the future, free will, how things are changed when people make decisions, and how God fits into that. I thought the dynamic between a Muslim and a Jew/Christian/westernised viewpoint of agnostic tied in. There wasn’t too much of that, but enough that it was an interesting discussion. I understand that Dekker changed the book after 911, I have the physical copy of the old version and I listened to the audiobook of the new version. I wanted to tandem read, but ended up mostly just listening to the audiobook. I know somethings were changed, and maybe at some point I’ll go and look at it in more detail. I would be interested to see what he changed in light of those circumstances. I enjoyed the story okay, the running for your life, running away from oppression, it was very dynamic. I would’ve preferred maybe a different environment to explore the concept of the prophetic/future seeing concept. Just personally.
Umm… yep. The story drew me in, it did feel like it was in multiple parts though. First half or so of the story was very clear, it made sense, I understood the stakes, and then all of a sudden we changed. it went from something I understood to something quite different. I’m not mad at it, I actually I enjoyed both parts, however the tonal and plot shift was a little disjointed for me. I didn’t connect to many characters though they were interesting in their own ways. The ending came out of nowhere for me. The resolution was not something I even a little bit thought would happen. Not a single place in my brain expected how this story unfolded. I thought that part was clever but also that it didn’t have a ton of foundation to it. As a reader there was really only one or so moments that you could look back on and see a small amount of foreshadowing. Otherwise I was so in the dark about it that it was impossible to guess (at least for me). All my theories were wrong. All my assumptions were wrong. Again, not mad at it because I thought it was clever (or at least interesting), just confused.
I’m really of two minds with this story. On one hand, I see the deep theological concepts at work. On the other side though, I see a lot of what appears to be New Age understanding. I don’t know how to marry the two together. I always thought that the circle world looked a little too deeply into the demonic side, and this story Not only did that, but also really leaned into what appears to be more of “ spiritual” understandings. I’m not saying that there wasn’t Christian themes in the story, but a lot of what was explored felt less biblical/gospel related like the Circle series was originally, and a lot more spiritual. I think delving too far into the spiritual spaces can be very distracting, and can also be quite dangerous. Just as CS Lewis explored when he wrote the Screwtape letters, the same could be said for something like this. It depends, I suppose, on your perspective. I always feel a bit squirmy in some of the exploration of the darker side of these books. This was no exception, and I think that without the guiding gospel message that the original books had, it had a more disappointing feel. The story itself, I found to be quite interesting. I liked that Rachelle was trying to work through the idea of being blind both physically and spiritually. There were some very interesting themes that were explored and I liked the concept of the city of Eden. I was tossing up with the rating whether it would be higher or not, but I think that I was left with the feeling of unease more so than contemplation as is often the case with Dekker books. Having said that, there were moments that I was challenged in my own understanding, and my own situation. We can all be blind sometimes to things in our lives, but I think we need to weigh up a story like this with the Scriptures.
Mild spoiler-ish (I try to keep big things out though)
I read this when I was a teenager and now as an adult and while I remember liking it (primarily for the twist) I found myself really getting a lot of additional things I didn’t get when I first read it. It was quite a deep look into the nature of good and evil, and how humans deal with that. I really enjoyed that aspect of it. It was a clever twist and turned through someone’s mind, through abuse and how that looks, and how we come to terms with the good and the bad in ourselves and in the world. I liked the plot, and I thought it moved pretty well. Characters were good, and there were a lot of clues throughout if you know what to look for. I loved that I knew what to look for this time, and it didn’t ruin the ending for me. I actually enjoyed this more, knowing the twist and how it was going to work out. I thought the conclusion was good, however the aftermath I thought was not taken very seriously. The point of the book was looking at the deeper issue of good versus evil, but I also thought that we could’ve potentially wrapped up how things looked in the aftermath with a little bit more realism.
This time around, I actually also listen to the audiobook. The same narrator as the circle series, and he has a very interesting way to read the bad guy voices. Convincing is all I will say.
Super powers that only the worst of the worst are given… what happens to the world after an event like that, and how do the regular people live? Can anyone be stopped, or is life just a wasteland?
Ten years ago, Calamity came. It was a burst in the sky that gave ordinary people extraordinary powers. The awed public started calling them Epics. Epics are no friends of man. With incredible gifts came the desire to rule. And to rule man, you must crush his will. Now, in what was once Chicago, an astonishingly powerful Epic named Steelheart has installed himself as emperor. Steelheart possesses the strength of ten men and can control the elements. It is said that no bullet can harm him, no sword can split his skin, and no fire can burn him. He is invincible. Nobody fights back . . . nobody but the Reckoners. A shadowy group of ordinary humans, the Reckoners spend their lives studying Epics, finding their weaknesses, and then assassinating them. And David wants in. When Steelheart came to Chicago, he killed David’s father. For years, like the Reckoners, David has been studying, and planning, and he has something they need. Not an object, but an experience. He has seen Steelheart bleed. And he wants revenge.
Graphic: Gun Violence, Death of a Parent, Death Moderate: Violence, Blood, Child Death Minor: Cursing, Car Accident, Suicide
My Review
I really enjoyed this one!
I liked the world that was created, and the POV of David was really great. I loved his funny character, and his interactions with the others. I really liked Brandon’s writing style too.
I found myself wanting to know more about Steelheart himself, and I look forward to the other books in the series to hopefully fill in more of the blanks about the world created – particularly the things that are still a question mark 😀
The final 20 pages or so seemed to squash a lot into a small space of time, and some of the story in that section felt rushed and/or a little contrived BUT overall it was great, the new location and Epics were awesome. I’m excited to read the final book!
Graphic: Gun Violence, Death, Gore Moderate: Injury, Violence, Fire Minor: Child Death, Sexual Content, Death of a Parent
My Review
Finally reached the end, and BOY was it worth it! I really enjoyed the whole series, and this final battle book was a fabulous ending. The characters (as always) were so full and authentic to the voices that began in the first book. I loved them, and I loved the development that this final book forced a few of them into! This book was utterly littered with adventure and twists that had me tearing my hair out. And I loved every moment of it.
The only reason for the 4 star rating was some of the plot ‘revelations’ felt a little cliched and that was a tad irritating.. otherwise, it was a fantastic ride!
Would I Recommend This Book?
Yes, this was a great series and if you want to dip your toe into Sanderson without committing to the entire cosmere, this is where I started and I would recommend.
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When I first sat down to read Powerless by Lauren Roberts, I did not finish it. I recognised the similarities with Red Queen, but that didn’t bother me. It was when I got to the Hunger Games part of the book that it felt a little dark and I just stopped. Eventually, I picked it back up and decided to give the whole series a try (even if just to see how similar it was to Red Queen, which I had read)… Let’s see how the experiment went.
Only the extraordinary belong in the kingdom of Ilya—the exceptional, the empowered, the Elites.
The powers these Elites have possessed for decades were graciously gifted to them by the Plague, though not all were fortunate enough to both survive the sickness and reap the reward. Those born Ordinary are just that—ordinary. And when the king decreed that all Ordinaries be banished in order to preserve his Elite society, lacking an ability suddenly became a crime—making Paedyn Gray a felon by fate and a thief by necessity.
Surviving in the slums as an Ordinary is no simple task, and Paedyn knows this better than most. Having been trained by her father to be overly observant since she was a child, Paedyn poses as a Psychic in the crowded city, blending in with the Elites as best she can in order to stay alive and out of trouble. Easier said than done.
When Paeydn unsuspectingly saves one of Ilyas princes, she finds herself thrown into the Purging Trials. The brutal competition exists to showcase the Elites’ powers—the very thing Paedyn lacks. If the Trials and the opponents within them don’t kill her, the prince she’s fighting feelings for certainly will if he discovers what she is—completely Ordinary.
Some things to keep in mind: Torture, Murder, Injury Detail, Death of a Parent, Torture
My Review
Okay. I read half of this book previously then came back to it. My considerations of viewing torture and murder as something characters like still holds. That is pretty brutal. All that aside, I did actually enjoy the book as a whole. Was it dark? Yes. Did I still like aspects of it? Yes. Banter was fun, trials were interesting, and I quite enjoyed the overall plot (of course I liked RQ so that makes sense).
Original DNF review just after halfway:
So, banter was amazing, characters were interesting, similarities between red queen and hunger games were there but it was still distinct to its own story. There was a large focus on torture and it was quite dark overall (almost expected when you consider the hunger games aspect). That was a large reason why I stopped reading. It wasn’t too bad, but there was something a little too dark for me in this story to keep reading
Some things to keep in mind: Murder, Injury Detail, Kindapping/Confinement, Torture
My Review
I like this one better than the first. There wasn’t as much focus on an inner dialogue about Kai and the torture he could and does carry out. The book itself just didn’t feel as dark as the first one, which was a lot better for me. I actually really enjoyed seeing how Peyton and Kai interacted with each other at this book a lot more than the first one. I think it did drag on a little bit, but the things that happen made sense and I enjoyed it so I didn’t mind.
Some things to keep in mind: Death, Grief, Torture, Toxic Relationship, Mental Illness
My Review
While Reckless was my favourite book in the trilogy, this one was my second favourite. The interesting high seas adventure, the balance between brothers, and duty versus love, and some other really interesting topics were covered. I thought it was pretty good, but they were some icky relationship things happening… One characters fate was a little… uncertain.. but I didn’t care that much.
Would I Recomend This Series?
I would recommend the series, but with a caveat. If you don’t mind reading Red Queen meets Hunger Games, and being able to spot the very similar scenes and characters, then go for it! If you are likely to get frustrated by this, then maybe give this one a pass.
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If you mix Divergent with Whisper (Lynette Noni) and Uglies (Scott Westerfield) you might come up with something close to describing this book – if they were written as Christian books. Let’s take a look at Anomaly by Krista McGee.
Decades before Thalli’s birth, the world was decimated by a nuclear war. But life continued deep underground, thanks to a handful of scientists known as The Ten. There they created genetically engineered human beings who are free of emotions in the hope that war won’t threaten the world again.
Thalli is an anomaly, born with the ability to feel emotions and a sense of curiosity she can barely contain. She has survived so far by hiding her differences. But then her secret is discovered when she’s overwhelmed by the emotion of an ancient piece of music.
The Ten quickly schedule her annihilation, but her childhood friend, Berk–a scientist being groomed by The Ten–convinces them to postpone her death and study her instead. While in the Scientists’ Pod, Thalli and Berk form a dangerous alliance, one strictly forbidden by the constant surveillance.
Graphic: confinement, Medical Trauma Moderate: Genocide, Gaslighting, Murder
My Review
Create a world that is full of atheists that are genetically modifying people and don’t allow any sort of emotions (or even a little case of the sniffles) and thrown in capital punishment, except the ‘punishment’ is only because they don’t like or trust you… yeah, that was pretty much this world. Thalli was a character we got to explore this with as she more and more allowed herself to feel. Feeling is dangerous, and can lead to problems… so that can’t be allowed. While I understand that idea, and where that fed into the plot and setup of this dystopian world and book, I don’t know if it quite landed for me. It was well written, and the characters made sense, but there was just something about it all that felt…. flat. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t amazing.The Christian themes and content was pretty obvious and not afraid to hide. While it mostly felt pretty smooth, some of it (especially the ‘come to Jesus moment/s) felt a little much. I feel that way in most books that are a ‘convert to Christianity’ type of moment though – it’s hard to write that on page when it is such an emotional and spiritual process (go figure). I found that for some of the story things moved slowly, and I was bored. I wonder if as the series continues, it would feel like a better pace now that we aren’t slowly discovering the world around you is different than you thought and/or you are constantly on a razors edge of being killed.
Would I Recommend This Book?
If you like Christian fiction, and don’t mind some pretty obvious messaging, and you’re a teenager… yes. I would. While I was definitely not the target audience for this one, I do see how many may enjoy this story and mystery to continue the series. It’s a 3 book commitment, but I would say yes to recommending this book.
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A novella has never gripped me the way this one did. To the point where I WISH there was a full length book for this! But Sanderson just keeps pumping out projects and most of them are in the cosmere, so I will not get my wish, and I’ll just have to survive on this one alone.
Anthony Davis and his partner Chaz are the only real people in a city of 20 million, sent there by court order to find out what happened in the real world 10 days ago so that hidden evidence can be brought to light and located in the real city today.
Within the re-created Snapshot of May 1st, Davis and Chaz are the ultimate authorities. Flashing their badges will get them past any obstruction and overrule any civil right of the dupes around them. But the crimes the detectives are sent to investigate seem like drudgery – until they stumble upon the grisly results of a mass killing that the precinct headquarters orders them not to investigate. That’s one order they have to refuse. The hunt is on. And though the dupes in the replica city have no future once the Snapshot is turned off, that doesn’t mean that both Davis and Chaz will walk out of it alive tonight.
Graphic: Murder, Death, Gun Violence Moderate: Blood, Infidelity, Violence Minor: Domestic Abuse, Child Death, Drug Use
My Review
Didn’t see any of it coming, loved every minute. Loved this concept of solving crimes through an inception level method. The characters were really interesting to follow and those dynamic was fun to watch. I wish it were longer, or that there were more of them!
Would I Recommend This Book?
Yes! Every day, it is such a great little read.
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