B****marked I MEAN Birthmarked

First of all, look at this title.

Image stolen from Amazon. Obviously. From whom you should order this book right now at this location
Just look at that title. Does that NOT look like "Bitchmarked" to you? I mean really. I don't even call it Birthmarked anymore. It is so obviously Bitchmarked.
Anyway, this book was awesome.
Why was it awesome?
Well...
I didn't hate the main character. This is good. She had a sort of Not Too Much Of A Martyr-ness to her that didn't piss me off too much.
The romance? The romance! It was perfect! It was the total, like, "I hate you. But hey, maybe I'll be a human being for a couple minutes. Oh, whoa, you're hot when you're not bitching at me. Okay, I'll help you for like five minutes, but I won't enjoy it. Okay, maybe I might. A little bit... OMGILOVEYOU. OH S*** THERE ARE DUDES WITH GUNS CHASING US. BACK TO REALITY.
I really liked the setting. It takes place in the area that once was the Great Lakes region, but after a fuel-related apocalypse combined with climate change, all the water dried up. The culture is kind of old-west-y, which is cool. Also, they wear cloaks. Cloaks are one of those things that nobody actually wears, but they must be present for a book to be cool. Or something.
In case you're really confused, Bitchmarked is about a girl named Gaia who lives not in but outside a Really Cool Post-apocalyptic Enclave (Once again, you're not cool unless you have either a clave or an enclave. What's the difference, by the way?). She's not quite cool enough to live IN the enclave, of course, she's too badass. The way it works is that you either live in it our outside of it. Instead of hospitals they have midwives, so every birth is assisted by one or two women, usually particular to the area. The midwives have an obligation to "advance" a certain number of babies every month to be adopted into the Enclave, who have a little problem with inbreeding, due to the fact that they live inside a wall.
Note to future post-apocalyptic societies: avoid living inside a wall as long as it is possible to live outside a wall. I mean, REALLY.
Anyway, Gaia's mom is the midwife, and Gaia kind of has this little "apprentice" thing going on. Gaia has a scar on her face, by the way, which makes people think she's a freak. Anyway, her parents get arrested, and she has to take over as midwife, taking people's children and advancing them and all that stuff. And then stuff happens and it gets really awesome. I'm going to try and avoid spoilers on this one, especially since it's better if you don't know them. Even the romance isn't totally obvious from the beginning, unless of course you're me and you know how it's going to end from the first page. I read too much. I haven't been surprised by a book in years.
Except maybe Goliath, but kind of not even.
So, as for the plot: awesome. I've been wanting something with that sort of Awesometype (New word. This is the kind of "vibe" the book sends, the energy of it. I'm cool, right?) for a while now. I'm making Mrs. McCauley read it, so we can discuss it on our Book Show Thing.

OH AND OMGGUESSWHAT? No Love Triangle of Doom. Yup. SOMEONE WITH SOME LEVEL OF ORIGINALITY YAY.
AND THERE'S A SEQUEL. I'm getting a Kindle Fire soon, so I can be even more of a book nerd, so that might be my first ebook.

WWMMRHRN:
-Sushi?
-Booksbooksbooks
-no homework, pleaseee
-Foood

Next Book: WGWG? This Dark Endeavor? The Last Hero? The world may never know.

1984

So, people say this book is boring.
It's not.
It's basically the original dystopia. Technically, it is the original dystopia. Therefore, it's awesome.
Also, it's just so...
Cool?
I don't even know.
Maybe I'm a nerd.
Maybe I'm crazy.
But this was a really good book.
Except the end.
That sucked.
But that was the way it had to end.
And I respect that.
Mer.

WWMMRHRN:
-Sushi
-MORE BOOKS.
-5 more hours in the day?

Next Book: something?

Goliath

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG
Now that I've gotten that out of the way, I need to warn you:
THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR ALL THREE BOOKS IN THE LEVIATHAN TRILOGY.
Moving on.
This book was amazing. Seriously. I loved it so much that I am going to start with the three things I hated about it and then move on to the fangirling. That way, I can get it off my chest.
1. Anastasia never showed up. I mean, durr, I knew she wasn't going to, but seriously! At the time, she'd have been fourteen, just old enough to fit into Alek and Deryn and Lilit and Newkirk's little gang. She's awesome. She was also a bit of a prankster, which would have been hilarious aboard the Leviathan. Moving on.
2. Remember the April Fool's Day art reveal? The one that made like fifty of us practically pee ourselves? This one? I really wanted it to be real. Really, really wanted it. I was also hoping that maybe it was two separate images stuck together, because I don't care about Alek destroying the chapel in his pirate walker as long as Deryn and Lilit are in some terribly awkward situation involving Lilit in a wedding dress. I like awkwardness, don't I?
Completely off topic, did you know that Scott's blog is the fourth most visited site on my browser? Because I'm totally not a stalker.
3. Alek never really got jealous of Deryn, which my buddy this girl recently pointed out to me, which sucks for Deryn because it's, like, not fair. Or something.
I don't know, all right?

Now, on to the important stuff.
THE REVEAL.

I'm glad Alek got to figure it out on his own. I mean, we're so mean to him anyway. He's a dummkopf in every fanfiction (especially mine... gah) and we sort of rag on him all the time, so he deserves something. Although it could have been more, you know, fun. Dramatic.

DERYN IN A KIMONO
Did not happen >:( C'mon, Scott, that would have taken like no effort to just stick her in a kimono for like five seconds. As long as there's an illustration we really don't care.

BOVRIL CREATING AN ARMY OF SPIDERS THAT LITERALLY BARK
Okay, fine. I have my limits.


Anyway, I finished this book about a day after I got it, and got it about five days after it came out, and then started this post about five minutes thereafter, but I kind of saved it as a draft, left off halfway through a sentence, and forgot to finish it. Oh well.

What Would Make Me Really Happy Right Now:
-Sushi
-Some of that soup that I can smell cooking but isn't done yet
-More books. Need more books

Next Books:
Birthmarked, WGWG (still...) 1984, some other stuff

Enclave

This may be my first intelligent post in a very long time.
Omiholywhatthegosh that was an epicgoodscarygoreycrazyomygod book.
This might be my favorite futuristic dystopia to date. What stands out about this one is that it feels so real. Possible. Like this could actually happen. That's why it's so hard-hitting. This was one of those books where the characters were on one side displaying that sense of detatchment that I hate, where they're not really characters but empty stereotypes to make the story move. These characters can be compared to those of Scott Westerfeld's Uglies because although there are some aspects of them that are completely vague, the emotions and connections between the characters go so far beyond the plot that I do feel like they are real people. I'm looking forward to Ann Aguirre's next book, Outpost, which is apparently going to come out fall 2012 and will be the sequel to Enclave. Yes! Except I'll have to wait more than a year. Darn it.
I've decided that this isn't like the Mortal Instruments Series (Cassandra Clare) which I literally would (and do) recommend to anyone over the age of twelve and under the age of thirty with no strict values or religious views that suggests that a gay romance would offend them. See, in MI, there is something for everyone--romance, action, fantasy, badassery--the list goes on. Enclave takes a certain kind of person to enjoy: someone who can read about the blood and the pain and the gore and take it, that knows that we need these warnings and wants to see them, to imagine the worst and work toward the best. The people that see history as a warning, whether it be the real Holocaust of WWII or fictional events such as the "second" one mentioned on the first page of Enclave. Some people want to know what's next. Some people want to influence it.
This is going to go a bit off topic, but I see it fitting considering that this is what this story makes me think about and I think it also relates to what Aguirre wanted to say when she wrote the book. I cannot stand it when people tell me they hate history, that they do not see the point in learning about people and governments and wars that existed a long time ago when they could just "learn about now" or "learn about the future" or some other dumb excuse for laziness and ignorance. Sure, history class can be boring and it's true that we don;t necessarily have to know the exact ways that every single republic liberated itself from the Soviet Union. But we do need to know that the Soviet Union existed, and that it failed, and why it failed, because it was a bad time and we need to make sure it does not happen again. You want to leave history to the nerds and the historians? All right. You go play Angry Birds on your iPhone and I'll go decide how the world will be run, and then you can let me dictate your life and indoctrinate your children and strip you of your rights. Without the education to know why this is bad or what could come of it, you are a helpless victim of my power. We cannot predict the future, so only knowledge of the past can help us ensure that it will be bright. We're lucky that we live in a time and place of relative peace and prosperity. If we don't think about our future, it might not be so bright, and your descendants will have no one but you to blame for it. If you think that all that matters is now, and because you are lucky enough to be a human in America in the twenty-first century, you're selfish. Your ancestors and your descendants are slapping you right now.
I may sound like a hypocrite--yes, I love history, but what am I doing to help the future other than talk? I'm speaking to myself as well when I write this.

What would make me really happy right now:
-An alternative universe generator
-Sushi
-More books
-Outpost

Next book: I'm going to take a look around my library for that now, actually.

BTW: I almost tagged this Love Triangle of Doom because there are two guys and both kiss the heroine, but really, it doesn't apply. The romance in this book was beautifully subtle and did not ever get in the way of the plot; in fact, it worked really well to strengthen the bonds between the characters and make slow action parts more interesting. Not that there are a lot of slow parts. I can honestly say that the romantic situation is actually fairly original, maybe due to its low profile, but it is well written and is probably the first good aberration from the Love Triangle of Doom that I have ever seen in a fantasy, sci-fi or dystopian novel. Congratulations, Ann Aguirre, you have somehow managed not to disappoint the Manon.

Matched

Matched is the first book I've encountered by Ally Condie. (Wanna get the author's name in there early cuz I've heard this isn't the only "Matched" in popular YA literature.)
Okay, so I found this book on Amazon while hunting for more good YA dystopians (Yay futuristic hell holes!) and I read this first chapter anditwasgood. So I bought it.
I actually enjoyed it quite a bit, but I'm still going to be Critical in this one.
THIS IS WHAT WAS GOOD ABOUT THIS BOOK. (I had English finals today so I'm not even gonna try to be smart. Be prepared for poor grammar and random capitalization.) I like the writing style. It's not like the Goddess Of Writing Jodi Piccoult, but it's pretty. Most dystopians, like say, the Hunger Games, begin with a main character that already knows that the government is evil and Man This Place Sucks and all that because they're already a victim and have been their whole lives. However, this is the first one I've read so far where the character actually believed due to her lifetime of indoctrination that the Futuristic Conspiracy To Control Our Minds! was actually the way to go. Gradually she's been submerged into the idea of These Dudes Are Whacked and People Are Dying Man, mostly through Ky, who is in fact the character who knows how Man This Place Sucks. The dystopia itself was also well-developed. I think I'm going to come up with a set of guidelines for well-developed alternative universes/dystopias:
Each one needs to establish:
-the standard mode of transportation (for instance, we have cars and sometimes planes. The Hunger Games has trains. Uglies has hoverboards and hovercars. Matched has a hovertrain or airtrain or something.)
-the way they get their food (we buy it at a store and cook it ourselves, or go to a restaurant. We generally dispense it through a refrigerator. Uglies get fed through a hole in the wall where Magical Objects of Awesome! come out. Hunger Games people hunt (but only if they're badass) or buy it from the black market (if they're semi-badass) or get it from the government if they're chicken.
-propaganda--what makes them obey (uglies: YOU MUST BE PRETTY OMG. Hunger Games: well, the hunger games themselves. Matched: everything is better here because we use probability and our people livelongerandarehappierandcrap.)
-main source of entertainment--what the people do for fun. (Hunger games: watch the hunger games on TV [we're talking capitol idiots here] uglies: go to parties and get creepy surgeries. Matched: game center, music hall, movie showings, leisure activities)
-Clothing: there must be a fashion scheme. (matched: uniforms denoting students, workers and officials; Uglies: crazy fashioncostumethingies for pretties, and didn't the uglies have like a uniform or something? Hunger Games: lots of raggy old cloth stuff. They're madpooryo.)
-Government Creepers: like the gestapo. Publicly known; usually feared. (Hunger games: peacekeepers. Matched: Officials. Uglies: wardens. Also Special Circumstances, but less public.)
-Fancy Board Of Government Jerks Who Decide Stuff (Uglies: the Pretty Committee. HG: the Gamemakers. Matched: I think we find out in the next volume xDD )[I just realized that was my first emote all post.]
-I think they're all communists. (actually, that's not a principle. But i think it's true. I might make a post entirely devoted to the fact that I think that Matched, The Hunger Games, and Uglies are all set in communist "futures" and it's all 1984alloveragain.)

Ok, now for my Critiques:
I read all fourhundredsomeodd pages and I still don't feel like I'm BFFs with Cassia, Ky, Em and Xander. They're not the most developed characters, and they're still kind of in that stage of development like the book just started and I don't know them yet. I think the most developed characters were Bram and the granfather, and since Grandpa died in like chapter four, that's saying something.
AND THE LOVE TRIANGLE OMG. It's less creative than Twilight. It pretty much IS twilight. I am going to outline a situation, and you try to think of every YA novel with this basic scenario or one very similar:
Boy1 likes girl. Girl likes boy but doesn't know it yet. Girl meets boy2 and falls in OMGlove! but girl and boy2 can't be together. girl finds out about boy1 but since she can have him he's unappealing even though he's better for her and everyone around her. He's just not as hot. So girl makes out with both of them and eventually either ends up with boy2 or realizes that boy1 was better all along, often following the death or destruction, if not betrayal, of boy2.
How many books did you come up with? Like, every YA novel ever? See? they're all the same. WillsomeonepleasewritemeagooddystopiannovelwithaNEWromanticsituationthankyou?
Ok. That is all.

What would make me really happy right now:
-Suuushiiii
-for someone to write me a novel according to the guidelines above.
-no more tests please school ok?
-more time to read at school

next book: The Woman Who Rides Like A Man

CHALLENGE: outline a romance taking place in a dystopia that is ORIGINAL.

How to Ditch your Fairy

This is totally like a month late.
Dude, this book is private-joke-inducing, fast-moving, and fun. There's still some universal message to it, making it true literature, but it's also kind of silly and cute.
And I'm tired and lazy, so I'm just gonna post this...
Maybe I'll edit it later.

WWMMRHRN:
-Sushi
-More hours in the night
-More books

Next book: Paper Towns

Animal Farm

Beeteedubs, tagged this non-spoiler because I fugure everyone pretty much knows how it ends.
One thing that scares me vary much is when things that are not supposed to walk on two legs walks on two legs. I do not know why. I think this is the unconscious logic behind my fear of mascot-like costume thingies. So that scene where all the pigs marched out on two legs was like holyeffingwhat? And I could see it in my head, and it was horrifying.
Animal Farm is a great book. It's fairly easy to read, to the point, and a great simile for the Russian Revolution. I love the last two sentences the most:
"No question now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."
I'm thinking of writing my own revolution/dictatorship novel-thingy. (There is a WORD for this; Courtney knows it. I heard her use it last week. I'll have to ask her.)

What would make me really happy right now:
-Winter percussion to not be over
-Big walking mascot costume thingies to not exist
-Some sushi
-More books
-OMG CITY OF FALLEN ANGELS IS OUT SOMEONE BUY IT FOR ME PLEASSSEEE!!!!!!!

Next book: Rebel Angels

Mockingjay

I literally just finished this minutes ago. I'm still kind of numb from the ending, but I liked the way it ended--with Peeta. Someday kids will be reading this instead of To Kill A Mockingbird, and I like that, but it also scares me. Katniss, Gale, and Peeta didn't seem quite real to me. But the society--that was reality. It was life. It was humanity. And I don't want it to be real.
I have two very big fears. One is death. I don't want to die. I cannot imagine not existing in this world anymore. Also, I want to leave an impact. I cannot go forgotten--I can't! I need to be smarter than Napoleon, more powerful than the medieval Catholic Church, more inspiring than Gandhi, more interesting than any Hapsburg and even more immortal than any artist or writer or philosopher. Maybe these things are far outside of my grasp, but I have to try! Doesn't everyone want to try? Your life is precious. For God's sake, do something with it! The concept of dying forgotten is terrifying in a new kind of way.
I am also afraid of endings. The last time I enter a room; the last time I see a person; the last chance to take part in something. I am afraid of regret.
I am also afraid of things that are already dead. Bodies of people, creatures, anything. I cannot stand their presence. Will they return, soulless, vengeful, come to take me with them to their realm of hatred and sorrow? I do not like death.
This book unsettles me. It is about death, and it ends. Death makes me feel very alone in the world. Right now, I feel very alone. Please, come, I need your company. Please don't die. Please don't kill me.
Let's live forever, and may our book never end.
I think that's how my mind works.

What would make me really happy right now:
-For someone to buy me the second book in Tamora Pierce's series Song of the Lioness, the individual installment entitled In the Hands of the Goddess.
-Sushi and magic sushi powers, see my last post.
-More books
-A green beret.

Next book: Perks or Alanna.

The Gift

One thing I love about James Patterson is that his books read quickly. That's important. I like that.
Like W&W, I was expecting a little more from this, but we're getting better. I hope book 3 makes up for it all. It probably will.
I'm not sure what I think of this yet. I like it, but anything past that is hard to say. I think it's just that my brain's a little foggy at the moment. I have been sick, if it's any justification.
I'm gonna ignore the metaphors and stuff in this one and just go straight to the pairings, because anything beyond that is making my head spin. I think Whit's going to get over Celia in the sense that he's going to stop trying to stay loyal to his dead girlfriend. I think I like him with Janine. And Wisty? the Weasel Swain is getting better, but he's still a creep. I wanted her to end up with Sasha, but it's looking a little more in Emmet's favor right now. But I love Sasha. He's just so... *sigh.* I wanted Wisty to be with him from the first time he came into the story. Even though I don't know much about him, I know more about what makes him tick than I do Emmet. If Emmet's character gets developed a little more in the next book, that might change.

What would make me really happy right now:
-To be able to compose a decent blog post. As you can see, this one sucked.
-Sushi
-More books. Always more books.

Next book: Not even gonna try. I'm thinking A Prince Among Frogs or Mockingjay.

Catching Fire (Post #2)

Sorry about the delay... if anyone actually reads this :D
So, Catching Fire...
My last post was mostly about the romantic situation and the actual reading of the book, so I guess I'll have to dig deeper into my mind and spirit and get a less cough cough shallow commentary.
I think the metaphor of the whole Hunger Games situation is sort of that of the world not only now but in the past: certain people are suffering greatly, whether it be poverty or extreme hunger or fear or disease, while (or so that) other people can live in extreme luxury.
Take Imperialism: the Europeans are like the capitol. They were living in comparatively extreme luxury, with their fancy factories and big guns. They take over the little areas (and big, well-controlled empires) in Africa and Asia, make the people work under dangerous or unhealthy or unfair conditions and exploit their land, then use their technology as a threat in case of revolution and give them little freedom. In the same way, the districts are controlled, governed, exploited, enslaved, and threatened with superior technological power.
And in the same way, some places are treated better than others; places like District One are more buddy-buddy with the capitol the same way, oh, Brazil was with Portugal. That was the best example I could think of off the top of my head, it's not perfect since Brazil was actually at one point the capitol of the Portuguese empire when the monarchs needed to leave Europe when Napoleon tried to conquer them. Or Spain. I forget which.

What would make me really happy right now:
-A nutella burrito
-Some Australian time-travel books (those are the destiny of my Amazon gift card :D )
-For school to start at 10 AM

Next book: either Mockingjay, Hush, Hush or The Gift. Right now odds are in Hush, Hush's favor, but as you must realize this is always subject to change.

Catching Fire (Post #1)

I have been waiting for this book for like, forever. And that was probably grammatically incorrect, which shows how valid my point is. I do not use incorrect grammar lightly.
Actually, I have found that poor grammar can be used as a literary device to emphasize a point. Go figure.
So, back to the secong installment in Suzanne Collins' masterpiece trilogy. To spoil or not to spoil... I don't think I can do this post without spoiling, so I'll make this a spoiler post. In fact, I have decided to make two posts for it, because I think it deserves it. Plus, I have a lot to say. (See next paragraph.)
So, one thing that I noticed about this book is that it is a lot of bookage, for lack of a better word, on a number of levels. For one, there are a lot of pages (amost 400) and each page has a lot of words. Also, Suzanne Collins maintains a style invlving lots of long paragraphs and few chapter breaks, meaning that there is not a lot of blank space on these pages. There are a lot of words to read, in contrast with my beloved Fang. I'm not saying this is a bad thing, though. It covered a lot of ground.
I think I need a stylist and a prep team. I have too much reading/writing to do to worry about looking good. I think I need people to do that for me. I want my own Cinna. However, Katniss' prep team are pretty aggrivating when it comes to emotional stuff. Grr.
So, I am, if not as my next literary venture then in the next week, going to read the conclusion to the series, Mockingjay. It being the conclusion, this is the best time to make predictions on -girlsqueal- who Katniss ends up with. If anyone. Now, there are a variety of ways this could go. Peeta could die, Katniss could make out with Finnick, and then dump him for Gale. Gale could start dating Madge and then Katniss could go all -jealousyrage- and then make out with Finnick. Or Peeta could find a girlfriend with less -stabstabstabkill- and Katniss could go make out with Finnick. Or Peeta and Gale could kill each other and then Katniss could go make out with Finnick. Either way, there is almost no doubt in my mind that Katniss will, in fact, make out with Finnick. It's just indisputable.
I just realized that Finnick is at least seven years older than Katniss. Oh, well, I'm still betting on the fact that at some point they're going to make out.
I also just realized that I left out the scenario of Katniss just staying with Peeta, because this is a novel, for God's sake. If they end up together at all, Katniss will still make out with someone else at some point. We just know this.
Then there's the possibility of Suzanne introducing a new guy. Since we have the hot older beach dude, the hot artist/baker, and the hot hunter/miner, all we have left are the hot nerd and the hot dude in District 13 that does, like, refugee stuff or revolution stuff or something. Like David from Uglies, maybe. Whatever way, he'll still be hot, because people in books are always hot. *Rolls eyes* Even us book nerds seem to think that everyone is always hot. This is sad.
Well, this concludes post #1.

What would make me really happy right now:
-The Gift by James Patterson (and that other dude)
-Some sushi
-Some Australian fantasy/scifi novels. I think my Amazon gift card can take care of that problem, though :D

Next book: Mockingjay or Song of the Lioness: Alanna (The First Adventure) or some other book.

Witch & Wizard

Another James Patterson :D I'm curios about the whole Gabrielle Charbonnet thing, how she's co-author but it sort of seems like JP is the only one. Most likely she just helped with ideas or something, I dunno. I'll google it. It would stink it they're jsut hyping JP because he's like, INSANELY FAMOUS. Which is true, and generally rightful since he's amazing.
So, for characters, I like Wisty and Whit, but I think Whit is a little bit one-sided. Whisty is very engaging, though. I sort of wonder whether Whit's going to stay with Celia or end up with someone else. THe thing is, in books it helps when the romantic leads are new to each other, because they're new to the reader, too. Most of the time, when the romance is already there before the book starts, the reader doesn't really care about it because they don't know how it started, so it's meaningless to them. I hope Wisty ends up with Sasha, though, because they'd be awesome together. Any guy named Sasha has to be awesome. Make that girl, too, because I was almost a Sasha, short for Alexandra, but it ended up being one of my middle names.
I really like this book, but I will admit I was expecting a little more from it, but since it's part of a trilogy most likely that'll be fulfilled then. And the second book came out, like, half a month ago. ANd I have some mookstore gift cards.
Except it's still in hardcover. So it'll cost more.
To buy or not to buy...
To buy. Duh.

What would make me really happy right now:
-The Gift, Witch and Wizard's sequel
-Mockingjay, because see Next Book
-More snow. Real snow, not this rain crap we're getting.

Next book: Catching Fire