Silver Shadows by Richelle Mead

Silver Shadows by Richelle Mead is the fifth and penultimate book in the Bloodlines series. I have previously reviewed the earlier books. In reverse order: The Fiery Heart, Indigo Spell and The Golden Lily (Bloodlines was pre-blog). Silver Shadows is a solid instalment in a series that has becoming more interesting (and with higher-stakes) with each book. Note that this review (and the blurb) contains spoilers for the end of the previous book, The Fiery Heart.

Sydney Sage is an Alchemist, one of a group of humans who dabble in magic and serve to bridge the worlds of humans and vampires. They protect vampire secrets—and human lives.

In The Fiery Heart, Sydney risked everything to follow her gut, walking a dangerous line to keep her feelings hidden from the Alchemists.

Now in the aftermath of an event that ripped their world apart, Sydney and Adrian struggle to pick up the pieces and find their way back to each other. But first, they have to survive.

For Sydney, trapped and surrounded by adversaries, life becomes a daily struggle to hold on to her identity and the memories of those she loves. Meanwhile, Adrian clings to hope in the face of those who tell him Sydney is a lost cause, but the battle proves daunting as old demons and new temptations begin to seize hold of him. . . .

Their worst fears now a chilling reality, Sydney and Adrian face their darkest hour in this heart-pounding fifth installment in the New York Times bestselling Bloodlines series, where all bets are off.

I really enjoyed Silver Shadows. The book alternates point of view chapters between Sydney and Adrian, with Sydney locked up in the harsh Alchemist re-education centre and Adrian on the outside trying to get Sydney out. It's a darker book than the ones that went before it, mainly because re-education involves a lot of torture. It does also highlight Sydney's indomitable spirit as she refuses to be let herself be brainwashed. My favourite part was the ways Sydney finds to fight back against the system, even while she's in the re-education centre. Adrian, on the other hand, spirals into a pit of depression and binge drinking when he can't make contact with Sydney, reverting to his former self.

Of course, Sydney doesn't spend the entire book locked up and the last... quarter, maybe, is much lighter in tone than what went before it. I found myself chuckling several times and the surprise near the end was pretty great. I wish I could talk about it more, but it's definitely a spoiler.

While the premise of the series revolves around Jill, Sydney and Adrian have always been the main characters. This is even more evident in Silver Shadows, since Jill and the rest of the gang do not get much page time. But I think there was also an element of needing to sort out a lot of Sydney and Adrian's story so that the last book could bring focus back on Jill (I'm guessing).

I highly recommend Silver Shadows for anyone whose enjoyed the Bloodlines series so far. Really that should go without saying. For those new to the series, it really is the kind of series that needs to be read in order from the start. I would not at all recommend starting with Silver Shadows or any instalment other than Bloodlines.

4.5 / 5 stars

First published: July 2014, Penguin
Series: Bloodlines book 5 of 6 (and Bloodlines is a spin-off series of the Vampire Academy)
Format read: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Viral Nation by Shaunta Grimes

Viral Nation by Shaunta Grimes is a post-apocalyptic YA novel about an autistic girl and her brother (and her service dog). I have mentioned in the past that I tend not to read blurbs between deciding to read a book (in this case because it was mentioned on the Diversity in YA blog) and actually reading it. In this case, that meant what I was expecting was a post-apocalyptic story with an autistic girl. What I got was also dystopian and had time travel, which threw me a little at first (because obviously I didn't look closely enough at the cover when I started reading either).

After a virus claimed nearly the entire global population, the world changed. The United States splintered into fifty walled cities where the surviving citizens clustered to start over. The Company, which ended the plague by bringing a life-saving vaccine back from the future, controls everything. They ration the scant food and supplies through a lottery system, mandate daily doses of virus suppressant, and even monitor future timelines to stop crimes before they can be committed.

Brilliant but autistic, sixteen-year-old Clover Donovan has always dreamed of studying at the Waverly-Stead Academy. Her brother and caretaker, West, has done everything in his power to make her dream a reality. But Clover’s refusal to part with her beloved service dog denies her entry into the school. Instead, she is drafted into the Time Mariners, a team of Company operatives who travel through time to gather news about the future.

When one of Clover’s missions reveals that West’s life is in danger, the Donovans are shattered. To change West’s fate, they’ll have to take on the mysterious Company. But as its secrets are revealed, they realize that the Company’s rule may not be as benevolent as it seems. In saving her brother, Clover will face a more powerful force than she ever imagined… and will team up with a band of fellow misfits and outsiders to incite a revolution that will change their destinies forever.

Despite the shift between my expectations and what I got, I loved this book. At first I thought the time travel aspect was rather strange — and honestly I still do, but not in a bad way — but it contributed to a complex and full world. One of my pet peeves with a lot of dystopian YA is poorly thought-through (or lazy) world-building, but Viral Nation certainly doesn't contain that flaw. Although the world is revealed slowly as the characters learn more about it, so I admit I was a little sceptical at first. (Side note: I think the blurb is slightly wrong because I remember the text mentioning 48 cities, not 50, which makes more sense since who knows what happened to distant Alaska and Hawaii after civilisation collapsed?) But as the conspiracy is revealed, it becomes increasingly interesting, especially since by the end we still don't know everything, partly thanks to the time travel aspect, but mostly because the author hasn't revealed it yet.

That aside, Viral Nation hooked me in from the very beginning. From the prologue, in which we glimpse the pandemic that wreaked havoc across the US (little word from the rest of the world, but less obnoxiously than most), to the teenage protagonists in chapter one, I was sucked in. Clover is completely a sympathetic character and I found myself cheering her on almost immediately, and cringing when social situations went badly for her. I also grew rather fond of her dog, despite being more of a cat person. ;-)

West, Clover's older brother, is also a point of view character. Again, I was a little sceptical at first when his point of view popped up before Clover's, but I'm pleased to report he was not there to steal Clover's limelight. He was an important character in his own right, but not at the expense of Clover's character, which made me happy. I picked up Viral Nation because I was keen to read about a non-typical protagonist — an autistic one in this case — coping in a post-apocalyptic world. I'm glad I did and I was pleased that there wasn't anything poorly done (as far as I could determine, but I am by no means an expert on autism). It added an extra dimension to the book (although for a YA book of this nature it already had rather a lot of dimensions to be getting on with) and although Clover's autism ended up being integral to the plot, I didn't find that was done objectionably. Also, it was nice to see an autistic girl for a change.

The only disappointment with Viral Nation is that it's the first in the series. It's not that I don't want to keep reading about Clover and friends — I do — it's that I can't keep reading now and I want to know what happens. The second book doesn't come out until next Northern summer. Sigh. On the one hand, if it was a standalone, I'd already know how everything turned out but there's no way Grimes could have fit as much worldbuilding depth into a single volume (y'know, unless it was a very loooong single volume).

I highly recommend Viral Nation to fans of YA post-apocalyptic dystopias. Adult fans will also enjoy it, as I did, although like me they may find themselves sceptical of it at first. Fans of intelligent characters who do not make incredibly stupid decisions to further a weak plot, should also find something to like here. Readers looking for a minority main character, especially an autistic one, will hopefully be very pleased with Viral Nation. Possibly also dog lovers.

5 / 5 stars

First published: July 2013, The Berkley Publishing Group / Penguin US
Series: Viral Nation book 1 of ? (my guess is trilogy)
Format read: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

The Indigo Spell by Richelle Mead

The Indigo Spell by Richelle Mead is the third instalment in her Bloodlines series. You can read my review of the second book, The Golden Lily, here. This review contains minor spoilers for the earlier books in the series.

Sydney the Alchemist in charge of the small group protecting a teenaged moroi vampire (the living and not evil kind of vampire) who happens to be the moroi queen's half sister. In the course of hiding incognito at a human school, many minor crises have popped up for Sydney to deal with. The Indigo Spell is no different. In fact, it continues to build on the events of the earlier books, adding layers of plot which will probably stick around in future books.

It's not something I noticed when I read The Golden Lily, but from the first book, Bloodlines, Mead has been adding background plot elements which have persisted in the subsequent books with more relevance than the main (fairly self-contained) action. Arguably, the main plot of The Indigo Spell is the plot line that leads to the climax but there is so much else going on — in a good way — that one could argue for another thread being the most important. The world throws a lot of mostly urgent stuff at Sydney and, in true Sydney fashion, she manage to balance all the emergencies at once.

The Indigo Spell focusses heavily on Sydney's issues with the Alchemists, secrets and magic, with some significant contributions from Adrian and Ms T the history teacher witch. But the other characters aren't forgotten about. I liked how Mead had them running up to Sydney with their problems every few chapters and, even though Sydney didn't spend much time fixing them, it let us keep up with what they were doing.

The set-up from the end of the previous book pays off well (ambiguity to avoid spoilers). One of the complaints I had about The Golden Lily (which I apparently forgot to mention in my review) was that Sydney failed to notice/work out a few obvious things until it was more convenient to the plot because she was so busy with everything else. I felt that again in The Indigo Spell, but to a lesser extent. This time it was only one thing she didn't realise until later and there were better plot reasons for it. On the other hand, another thing I was expecting her to make the connection regarding didn't happen at all but I can only assume it will come out in a future book. Or maybe I'm guessing wrong. Ambiguous paragraph is ambiguous. Sorry.

I think The Indigo Spell can be enjoyed by itself, but works better as part of the series read sequentially. I recommend it to fans of YA who have enjoyed Richelle Mead's other books or who are looking for something a little bit different from a book that also involves vampires. I eagerly await the next instalment (especially after the set-up dropped in at the end — plenty of room for new shenanigans!).

4.5 / 5 stars

First published: February 2013, Penguin Australia
Series: Bloodlines, book 3 of ?
Format read: eARC, on Kobo
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green is a book about teenagers with cancer. Hopefully that gives you an indication that it's not the cheeriest of books and, perhaps, you should have some tissues at hand when you read it.

The main character, Hazel, is sixteen and terminal. She almost died when she was fourteen, but then an experimental treatment worked and has been keeping the tumours in her lungs from growing ever since. She's still terminal, but she doesn't have a time frame. And because, as she says, her lungs suck at being lungs, she has to wheel a little cylinder of oxygen around with her everywhere she goes and can't really do anything physically exerting.

At a cancer kids support group (which her parents make her attend under sufferance) she meets Augustus, a friend of her only support group friend, who quickly becomes her love interest.

I really enjoyed reading the interactions between Hazel and Augustus. They talk and joke to each other a bit pretentiously, like smart kids sometimes do, and it was refreshing. They talk about books, death and quote poetry at each other. And Hazel tries not to get too entangled with Augustus because she knows she's terminal and doesn't want to put him through losing her as a girlfriend. This is a pretty good summary of Hazel's character as she also spends a lot of time worrying about what will happen to her parents after she's gone, especially her mother, whose life currently revolves around looking after her sick daughter.

The bulk of the novel is about Hazel and Augustus's growing relationship, its consequences and, of course, cancer and death.

The remainder of this review contains a minor spoilers as there are more aspects I wish to discuss, but can't otherwise. If you're concerned, I suggest skipping to the last paragraph before my star rating.

Hazel shares her favourite book with Augustus — about a teenage girl with cancer, which ends suddenly as though the main character died before she could finish writing it. And the book becomes a central fixture of their relationship. Hazel desperately wants to know what happened to the other characters in the book, particularly the main character's mother, school friends and hamster. When Augustus tracks down the reclusive author, his somewhat bleak correspondences bring the couple closer together.

I liked what Green did by including the book with no ending. I briefly worried that he was setting the reader up to be less disappointed by his own planned non-ending (since The Fault in Our Stars is written in first person), but as the story progressed I realised it was an implicit promise to the reader not to do the same thing. Although the book ends before Hazel dies we have been assured as to the fate of her parents, unlike the mother in Hazel's favourite book. Her concert for the fictional mother highlights again Hazel's general worries for the people left behind. Once she comes to terms with the fact that her very existence is not the worst thing to happen to her parents (although her cancer probably is), she also stops needing to know the fate of the fictional character. One of the ultimate messages of The Fault in Our Stars is that loss does not negate the value of what came before it. Sick children can die, but that doesn't mean they don't deserve to be loved nor that those who love them wish they didn't. Another important theme, which I think many people broadly can empathise with, is that just because one is sick or dying or frequently in pain, doesn't make one less human nor ones thoughts less important.

The Fault in Our Stars is an excellent and heartbreaking read. I recommend it to all readers, although I suspect adults with children might find it more affecting than, well, healthy teenagers. This book has caused quite a stir in the YA blogosphere and I've had it on my goodreads want shelf for a little while. I'm glad I got the chance to read it sooner rather than later.

4.5 / 5 stars

First published: January 2012, Penguin Australia
Series: Hah, no.
Format read: e-review copy. (Actually this is the first time I've read a PDF on my Kobo. I was expecting a worse experience although it wasn't awesome.)
Source: Publisher via NetGalley (I believe it's a promotion for the one year book-o-versary)