The Darkest Minds

Staying true to the norm, once again I am way behind on another very popular YA trilogy. Everyone started OOING and AAHing over In the Afterlight  by Alexandra Bracken when it came out this year, and when I looked it up–what? It’s the last book?!?!?!

Lucky for me, the release of the final book meant that Hey! The first ebook was free on Amazon. Woot! So, I’m catching up.

The Darkest Minds can be described, basically, as another one of those love triangle dystopian YA trilogies, but there’s quite a bit going on–and from what I can tell, at least, the love triangle only seems to last for this book. At least the third branch of it. *shudder*

But let’s back up. The story begins with a sickness that rages through the children of the United States, hitting around age 10. It seems to have no effect on adults, as it is linked to the onset of puberty. Most of the children die instantly, but those that aren’t killed take on 5 different styles of superpowers. And the adults are absolutely terrified, so they send them all off to internment camps. Great parenting, huh?

This book is basically Lord of the Flies in modern times, except the adults are still around, and absolutely pissed off. The setting is very zombie-movieish, without any zombies. Everything is complete and utter destruction, everyone lives in camps outside the city because the economy has completely tanked. It’s madness.

The concept is pretty brilliant, really, and terrifying. I will say that the book is a little confusing at first, but once you start to understand Ruby, everything falls into place and the action picks up. This is a trilogy I’ll be continuing, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a movie come out of this one either. It wouldn’t be a hard world to design since it is based on reality, and it’s quite a different concept from what is already out there.

 

Fulfills PopSugar #34:  A book with a love triangle

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Ebooks

There is a constant debate over whether Ebooks are “real books.” It gets pretty heated sometimes.

I’m not sure there’s many bibliophiles who would disagree with me that the best smell in the world is that of old, musty book. There’s nothing else like it. And it’s true, electronic words just cannot compare with ink on a yellowed, tattered page. Kindles, even with customized covers, cannot match the excitement of a bookshelf full of multi-colored books of every size, texture, age, author, title, organized perfectly and collected obsessively.

I am so proud of my bookshelves. You know this. I will never stop collecting REAL PAPER BOOKS. And in a fire…there would probably be a few I would have to grab.

But. All that said. I also have a Kindle. And a tablet. And I regularly use Overdrive through my library on my computer and my phone.

Why? Why do I continue to read electronically, when there are so many REAL books available to me?

Ebooks are a convenience. Every reason really comes back to that one point. I would love to buy every book, I really would. But, books are expensive. Thankfully, Overdrive has made it so easy for libraries to provide ebooks to us. I can download them to my kindle or tablet in seconds, and off I go. And I love Kindle Unlimited too! It got a lot of hate when it first came out, but I’ve really enjoyed it. And, I talked to an author the other day, who told me that after a reader gets 10% through a book, he gets paid as if they bought the book. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me!

The other great thing about Amazon…so many classics are free. I probably have 150 books from my Boxall list already downloaded on my Kindle, just waiting to be read. They are the hard ones, the books I will have to highlight and look up definitions–and guess what–I can do that just by holding down a finger. I can’t do that with a real book. And you KNOW I hate highlighting real books. Ugh. Some books I just prefer to read interactively!

Often times, I’ll use Ebooks as an “audition.” Once I read it electronically, I just HAVE to own a copy. Most of the books I own, I’ve already read. I do have a TBR Shelf, but it’s relatively small in comparison to the TBR folder on my Kindle. Which is another convenience of ebooks–storage. I can always have a book ready. When we went on vacation, I took my tablet, rather than 5 different REAL books. It was just easier.

Finally, having a Kindle and tablet makes it possible for me to participate in NetGalley and Penguin First to Read programs. I never thought I would be able to read books before they got published, and it’s so cool that publishers give us this opportunity! They’ve really taken advantage of the book blogger community to get feedback on their premarket books…and we all love it! GIMMIE THAT ARC! How cool is it that we are the first people to read the up-and-comings? I love it and certainly do not take the privilege lightly.

When you read as much as I do, you’ll take words in any format they come. Ink on a page, or eink on a tablet. Just please give me more more more. And if you haven’t picked up a Kindle or Tablet only because “well, people say that’s not real reading.” Trust me, it’ll make your reading experience even better. I’m reading even more than I did before I ordered my Kindle. And, probably reading better, because it’s so interactive.

(At this point, I should probaby say, this is not an ad for Kindle, and I haven’t been paid. I just really love my Paperwhite. This applies to any tablet or ereader.)

Where do you stand on the real book/ebook fence? Do you use both?

The Son (and Kindle Unlimited)

I may have had a pretty epic freakout yesterday. I’ve been saying for YEARS that someone needed to invent Netflix for books. And libraries have come really really close. I absolutely love the Overdrive app, especially since I can use it on my Kindle. BUT…the selection isn’t always great, and I often have to wait weeks for books while they sit on hold.

And then yesterday…Amazon announced Kindle Unlimited.

If you haven’t seen the articles and announcement pages on this, you need to go check it out. And no, I am not getting paid or anything by Amazon, I just am really excited about this idea. They are running a 30 day free trial, and I am allllll about that.

The basic premise is that you have access to borrow 600,000 ebook titles from Amazon, on any Kindle (or Kindle app!), plus Audible audiobooks. Not every publisher is on board with this, but 600,000 titles is a LOT, people. From what I’ve flipped through, I’m pretty stoked.

There’s no return limitation, and from what I can tell, no holding. I’m excited about it, and I’ve signed up for the free trial. It’s just in time too, since I have to pack up the rest of my books today, and I have vacation coming up. My Paperwhite is going to buuuuusy.

Also–before anyone asks–I will still use my library. There are books that I’m not going to be able to get online from Amazon. It’s not a perfect system. And, ebooks will never, ever replace a real book for me. For me, ebooks are auditions, usually. I often read them in ebook format first, before I commit to a purchase.

And now on to our regularly scheduled review:

I have been wanting to read the last book in Lois Lowry’s quartet for awhile now, but I haven’t been able to get my hands on it. The two libraries I’m a member of here didn’t have it online, and I haven’t had time to run in and grab it. So, of course, The Son was the very first book I pulled from KU.

Lois Lowry wraps up her series with Gabe’s mother Claire. She was an almost invisible character in the first book, and here we get her entire story. We also see Gabe as a young man, and a hero.

My favorite thing about Lowry’s quartet is that almost every character has a specific part to play, and even someone minor may come back later. The details matter. She didn’t just sit down and write the first book, and then the rest of the series as an after thought. She had to of had a complete mapped out plot and plan ahead of time. I would love to see her outline. “This is where this person connects and how I’m going to wrap up this community.” Some places are modern and some are almost medieval and peasant-like.  I would love to see a map of this place. Where is Tolkien when we need him?

Jokes aside, I see her as a YA version of Tolkien. Her stories are more simplistic maybe, in the way they are written, the language is not so intricate. But that doesn’t make them any less beautiful or deep. I’ve talked to a lot of people lately, who liked The Giver, but stopped after struggling with Gathering Blue. Keep reading. Finish the series. Everything connects in the end, but that second book is a little frustrating to get through. It’s sad and it doesn’t seem like it has anything to do with Jonas and Gabe. It has everything to do with them. Trust me.