Sever by Lauren DeStefano (Chemical Garden)

     With the clock ticking until the virus takes its toll, Rhine is desperate for answers. After enduring Vaughn’s worst, Rhine finds an unlikely ally in his brother, an eccentric inventor named Reed. She takes refuge in his dilapidated house, though the people she left behind refuse to stay in the past. While Gabriel haunts Rhine’s memories, Cecily is determined to be at Rhine’s side, even if Linden’s feelings are still caught between them.

     Meanwhile, Rowan’s growing involvement in an underground resistance compels Rhine to reach him before he does something that cannot be undone. But what she discovers along the way has alarming implications for her future—and about the past her parents never had the chance to explain.

      In this breathtaking conclusion to Lauren DeStefano’s Chemical Garden trilogy, everything Rhine knows to be true will be irrevocably shattered.

     The end of Fever prevented me the luxury of relaxing between reading it and this sequel. It's not too often that I read a series where the next book is available right away, so I took this opportunity and was soon back into Rhine's world, quickly reaching the conclusion to this trilogy.

     I have a lot of mixed feelings about this installment in the series. I feel like a majority of the front matter in this book was waiting around. Either they were waiting for Rhine to be released from the hospital, or Rhine was waiting for a good time to leave Reed's place, they're waiting for the opportunity to escape Vaughn, etc. 

     However when we weren't waiting for something to happen, SO MUCH was happening, and there was either a lot of action going on or there was a lot of information being fed to Rhine and the reader. So much information, in fact, that I think Rhine was kept a little too in-the-dark in the first two books, because the entire second half of the book is like an information overload. There's intel about Rhine's genetics, and her brother Rowen's actions in the last year, and Vaughn's true intentions with the twins (the sister wives, and Linden, and the maids, and pretty much anyone he could get his hands on). There was a shocking reveal 250 pages in that doesn't really get explained very well by the end of the book, and then there's suddenly a hostage situation. It was a lot to process very quickly.

     

Things That I Liked:

     I really liked Reed and his eccentricities. He was a really interesting character, and I'm almost sad that we only got to know him in this final installment.

     I liked the added layer of this world/disease that was brought about with Hawaii and all that entails.

     I was confused but delighted by Rhine's and Linden's obvious lingering feelings for each other, and I definitely felt Linden's heartache and hesitation to trust his former-favorite wife.

     I liked that Cecily finally decided to grow up.

     THE ROSE REVEAL. So shocking. So good.

Things That I Didn't Like:

     I was confused about the Hawaii-addition and if it was explained how that whole "situation" was possible, I think I missed it.

     I wish there was more Gabriel. Or at least more worry for Gabriel.

     I wanted Rowen's actions/thought process about his attacks/bombings/trusting-of-certain-people to be explained better. Again, if that did happen, I missed it.

     MORE MADAME (and Jared). Wanted it. Didn't get it.

Overall Impression:

     I was once again captivated by DeStefano's prose, and while I still believe that Fever is the better book in the trilogy, Sever does have a lot going on and a lot to love as a final book in a series. 

     I was a little "eh" about the ending, it seemed to come about a little too easily for me, then again I don't know how else I would have preferred it to go. Almost all of my questions were answered, and reading other reviews tells me that most everyone else who read the series had all of their questions answered to their satisfaction. 

     Overall for the series, this story presents a new and interesting concept, and it provided a really fascinating and complex social situation to work a story around. 

I will be waiting excitedly to get my hands on DeStefano's Internment Chronicles: Perfect Ruin book in October. For more information on that, please visit the book's GoodReads page.

Blonde's Rating: 3.5/5

Amazon's Rating: 4.3/5

GoodReads Rating: 3.9/5

Check out the reviews of the other books in the series, Fever and Wither.

Thanks!

The Blonde

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

BLONDE BOOK REVIEW:

 My first review for this blog is taken from my other blog, and it is on Maggie Stiefvater's The Raven Boys, the first book in the Raven Cycle series. I want this to be here because I really enjoyed reading this book, and I think this review belongs here.

The Raven Boys -Maggie Stiefvater

Blue Sargent, the daughter of the town psychic in Henrietta, Virginia, has been told for as long as she can remember that if she ever kisses her true love, he will die. But she is too practical to believe in things like true love. Her policy is to stay away from the rich boys at the prestigious Aglionby Academy. The boys there — known as Raven Boys — can only mean trouble.

[WARNING -this review may contain spoilers.]

Indeed, the Raven Boys, Gansey, Adam, Ronan, and Noah, prove quite a bit of trouble for Blue, who is just trying to make it through high school without falling in love. 

As always, I love Stiefvater's writing, and I couldn't resist the urge to ask for this book for Christmas -I would have bought it myself back in September when if first came out, but I had a lot going on in my fall semester. Anyway, Stiefvater manages to write both mundane and disturbing instances sound like poetry, or lyrics in a song. If you haven't read any of her other books, I encourage you to pick up The Scorpio Races -it was so incredible and such a great story, and can't stop talking about it, a year after reading.

Things that I liked:

        I really appreciated the different personalities and characters of the three main Raven Boys (we don't see a heck of a lot of Noah in this first book, so I can't really talk about him that much). One of the things that I really admire so much about Stiefvater's writing is her ability to balance a number of different characters and their own personal stories into the major storyline of the book.
        I utterly loved Gansey's unintentional insults and obliviousness to other people's feelings and principles, despite his obvious intelligence and focus on his passion. 
        Adam is a little too self-depricating for my taste, but overall I really liked him and his personal principle to make his life what he can by his own power; and I'm not-so-secretly rooting for him and Blue to get together, and not the hinted Gansey-Blue future romance. Although, I am a little concerned about how he survived the weird ritual and what it means about his "person" in the coming books.
        Ronan is a little hard to love, as he is in the story, but not because he's aggressive, gloomy, violent, but because his character is full of unresolved secrets! GRRR! I just want to know how his father died and what kind of strange power he really has to make ravens out of his dreams and his thoughts.
        Blue is less of a mystery than her mother and aunts and weird family psychics living in her home. I would, however, love to know if her power-that's-not-a-power is going to transform in anyway to help the Boys find their ancient king.

        The story is a new kind of quest that I haven't really seen done this way before, and that intrigued me a lot, especially because I picked up this book for the author, not so much the story. I liked how the individual aspects and journeys of each character sort of fell into place as the book moved along, and the mystery that came along with the magic Blue and her Raven Boys discovered helped make the story even more interactive.

What I didn't like:
Not finding out who Blue's father really is.
Not finding out how Ronan's father died. Or what his problem with his brother and the rest of his family is.
Not knowing what the heck is happening with that weird tree.

        Getting so lost in the story that I didn't realize there wasn't enough time/pages in the book to actually get to plot points that have been hinted at earlier in the book, and then failing to accept that this book was the first in a series that has yet to be fully published, and not a stand-alone novel.

Overall Impression:

While I was extremely disappointed to discover that this was the first in a series that I'll have to wait for, I was enamored by the mystery in this book, as well as the characters and their personal histories, of which readers haven't completely uncovered just yet.

Blonde's Rating: 4/5
Amazon/Goodreads Rating: 4/5

The second book in the Raven Cycle series, The Dream Thieves, is now available for pre-order and will be on sale on September 17, 2013.

That's what I've got to say on that!
Thanks!
THE BLONDE

Welcome to The Blonde Reviews

Hello!

Welcome to the Blonde Reviews, where I -the blonde -review books and movies and TV shows that I watch right here in semi-perfect prose.

Now, seeing as I'm still kind of poor and pathetic and unpopular, I can't always update movies and TV shows in a timely manner, because I'm working into the wee hours of the morning.

My taste in books tends toward the YA Fantasy/Chick Lit realms (sorry I'm not sorry), but I do sometimes venture outside my comfort zone and try something new -especially with suggestions!

Movies range all over the place -except into horror/scary movies (unless I get lots of readers that want to make me suffer and ask and ask and ask me to go and review them).

TV shows are a little harder, because I can't keep up a regular TV-watching schedule, but there are shows that I follow every season, and sometimes I just have to do super major catch-up sessions every few weeks to keep myself updated.

So yes, I can't promise you the most timely of reviews, but I can promise you that they will be the best and most honest that I can give to you.

I'd never give anything less.

Thanks!
The Blonde