Tag: young adult

Dystopian · Fantasy · Sci-fi · Science Fiction · young adult

Skyward By Brandon Sanderson

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  • Published by: Delacorte Press
  • Read: November 28, 2019- November 30, 2019
  • Rating: 4.5 Stars

“Their heads are heads of rock, their hearts set upon rock. Set your sights on something higher. Something more grand.”

-BRANDON SANDERSON

This is not a book I would of normally picked up. As soon as a book mentions aliens or space I tend to walk away from it. I was never a big sci-fi reader, or watcher. There is honestly one sci-fi book I have ever fallen in love with it, and honestly I forgot it was sci-fi half the time…. that book is the Red Rising series by Pierce Brown for those wondering. I now have another book to add to that list. Brandon Sanderson did something only one other person has done, he made me love sci-fi.

Skyward is about a seventeen year old girl named Spensa who wants to be a pilot, but has trouble after her father was branded as a coward. Her whole life Spensa has had to live with the fact that everyone thinks her father died a coward, and now it’s her time to become a pilot and redeem herself and her father, but they won’t make it easy for her. With the help of a few caring people, and a wrecked talking ship she found, she will fight for her right to be a pilot. Along with answering the questions she always had about her father, and the biggest question of all, what’s among the stars.

I won’t lie, the beginning of this book somewhat bored me, but it was all necessary. It showed us Spensa’s life since her father was branded as a coward, and her as a character. Then it takes us to her in flight school with her squad. A lot of the beginning is getting the reader used to the world and it’s characters and showing us what flight school is. It’s a little boring, but the dialogue makes up for it, and it is a necessary part of the story.

I don’t exactly remember how long it took for the book to get interesting(to me at least)… actually I do, but it includes spoilers so about a little over a quarter of the way through, which wouldn’t seem so bad but the hardcover is 510 pages(according to goodreads anyway), so it does take a while. Or at least it did for me. That’s when the book started to hook me, when it got REAL interesting to me was closer to seventy percent way through the book. That’s when things started to unfold and as I said, got REAL interesting.

I will go into more important details, but I wanna talk about some of the characters first, since they are the most important part of the story usually. Now there is a lot of characters and I’m not going to talk about a lot of them, only the ones who are really important to know.

Spensa- There was times were Spensa got annoying, BUT I liked that, which is not something I would ever really say. Spensa is a seventeen year old girl who never got anything handed to her in life. She had to fight her way to get treated like the others. She’s been society punching bag for ten years, so of course she is going to act that way she acts. She is wrathful, but because of defense. When is isn’t having to defend herself or her family, she’s friendly and jokes around with everyone else. She has her flaws though. She’s narrowed minded. She only cares about being a pilot, and not a coward. This causes many problems with her friends and herself. We also see Spensa go through ALOT within the short time she is in flight school, and the whole time we are watching her change. I loved Spensa, and I loved watching her grow.

M-Bot: I love robots so M-Bot comes next. When I saw that the book had a talking ship in it I thought it was weird but when I met M-Bot I fell in love with him. I thought he was going to have a bland personality, because it’s a ship, but boy was I wrong. M-Bot is best boy. He wins all the awards. He was funny, adorable, and did his best. He deserves as many mushrooms as he wants. Out of all the characters, M-Bot was easily the best.

Jorgen – All of the kids of the pilots from a previous war get an easy ride in life, and Jorgen is one of these kids, and he is also the flightleader of Spensa’s flight squad. Jogen is one of those character I found annoying in the beginning, but as I read more of him I like him more. I don’t love him yet, but I don’t find him annoying. I understand him. He’s very uptight and is like a robot half the time, not because he lacks emotion, but because what he says sounds like something he was programmed to say. He tries really hard though and I hope he gets more time in the next book so I can love him.

Cobbs- Cobbs is the instructor for Spensa’s flight squad, and also her dad’s old wingmate. I loved Cobbs. He is one of my favorite type of mentors in books. He is hard on them, but you can see that he truly cares about all of them.

Admiral Ironsides- She is, of course the Admiral. She is an antagonist, not world wise, but towards Spensa. She tries very hard to not let Spinsa be a pilot. One of my favorite parts of Ironsides is reading her side through her point of view. (She is the only character so far with their on POV, but only at certain times) By the end of the story it’s easy to understand why she does what she does.

The Krell- The Krell are THE antagonist of the story. They are the alien forces that try to kill and destroy whatever the humans build. The Krell is why pilots are needed and why they are stuck on the planet they are stuck on. Not much is known about the Krell. No one has even seen one. Just their ships.

Easily, I found the best part of this book to be character development. We see all of the characters change along the way, but especially Spensa. As each event unfolded we got to see her process it and how it affected her. There is no question of whether these characters devlop or not. The Spensa at the beginning of this book, is not the same Spensa at the end. Within one book she has changed so much. She isn’t the only one that changes either. Watching each character change as they faced real problems for the first time in their life was my favorite part of this book. It was like watching a flower blossom. You saw what it looked like when it was closed off to the world, but watched as slowly, it opened up and became something beautiful, getting to truly experience the world.

There is a lot to love about this book. M-Bot is one, Doomslug the other. I read this book, solely because of it’s author. The first book I read when stepping into the adult type novel world, was Mist Born by Brandon Sanderson. It easily became one of my favorite books and I fell in love with his characters and the worlds he builds. This book did that. I loved the world, and I loved the characters. I loved the dialogue. It felt real, and funny. It would actually make me laugh and it was believable. I’m pretty sure half of my notes in the boot were parts I found funny. It was a really fun read, not to mention that ending. I’m pretty sure within a few chapters we somewhat get the gist of what’s going to happen at the end, but actually reading it… masterpiece.

Another thing I would to note, the eyes. Most people probably didn’t or don’t have this same reaction, but I have a fear of deep space and the vast unknown, so when I got the spot about the eyes, (you’ll know when you get there.) I actually got scared. I won’t say anymore about that. Just had to mention that.

As someone who avoids sci-fi like it is a horrible disease, I can say I LOVED this book and can’t wait till I can relax and read it’s sequel…which will probably be in a few minutes to be honest. Towards the end I couldn’t put it down. It was late, and I knew I needed to go to bed, but I couldn’t. I HAD to finish it and know how it ended. The thing I found when it comes to books, shows, anime, manga, is that there is usually a genre we don’t like, but there’s exceptions to those rules. I hate mecha anime, but I love Gurren Lagann. When something has good writing, you can’t help but throw away your opinions about a genre and just devour it. I don’t like sci-fi, but I love this book. This book is my exception(along with Red Rising). Brandon Sanderson is a creator of masterpieces, and this is another example of his beautiful work.

“Good night, sweet prince.” M-Bot whispered as the junk crashed to the ground. “Or princess. Or most likely genderless piece of inanimate space junk.”

bRANDON SANDERSON

I had to include a quote from M-Bot. I couldn’t just not show why I love him. That would be wrong.

Fantasy · Magic · New Adult · Romance

The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black

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This is just going to be really quick since I wasn’t really planning on writing a review for this book because I wasn’t really looking at any of it’s flaws while reading it. I was just reading in bliss, happy to finally have this book in my hands, but after I was done with it I couldn’t tell if I had book hangover from this book or something else, and I think it’s something else.

I loved this book and it’s series. It’s the only book series by Holly Black that I like, but I have only read one other book by her. In that book I found the same problem, most of it was good, but I found something lacking. For that book I wasn’t really sure what it was, but for this one I am, and that’s Cardan.

Now don’t get me wrong, I LOVED Cardan. I loved him since we saw him in the first book and he was this horrible character. It wasn’t that Cardan, as a character was lacking, but content of him was lacking. Cardan. Most of the time in this book Cardan is not there. You see him, and then poof he’s gone. You read more about Cardan from other characters then you see him. You do see more of Cardan’s good side, but again you rarely see him. In the other books you see Cardan a lot. I just reread The Wicked King and you see Cardan plenty, but in this book I rarely ever saw him.

Other then my sadness over the lack of Cardan, I loved this book. It had it’s moments were I was bored, not gonna lie, but I’m pretty sure all books do that so I can’t fault that. Most of the time I didn’t want to put this book down. Once I got halfway through the book I had to force myself to put it down and read the other half tomorrow. I’m honestly sad it’s over. I want more. It’s a rare type of book that I don’t see a lot of it and I want more of. I NEED more of. I’m very sad this journey is over. I’m still stuck in the book hangover and have no idea how I will get out of it.

P.S. This book scared me for the characters many times. I had no idea how it was going to end to be honest.

Contemporary · Romance · Sports

Surviving Adam Meade

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Surviving Adam Meade

Shannon Klare

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Publisher: Swoon Reads

Year Released: 2018

Date Read: October 5, 2018

Genre: Romance, Contemporary, Young Adult, Slightly Sporty

Grade: C+/ 3.8

“Adam’s eyes narrowed. ‘Wow. Sure there isn’t a pair of ball on you?’

‘Sure there’s a pair of balls on you?'”

-Shannon Klare

 

After her dad gets a new job coaching a high school football team, Claire Collins is forced to move to a new town her senior year. Claire just wants to hurry up and finish school, and go to college. She doesn’t want to make any new friends or be around her father’s new football team. The chances of all of that happening for her quickly go down hill when Adam Meade, the school’s star football player, treats her as if she’s nothing and continues to do so. Claire just wanted to get through her year, but once Adam makes her a target of his game, she finds it impossible to do so.

Contemporary’s are like my guilty pleasure, except I don’t really feel any guilt for liking them because they aren’t bad. They are the gushy cute romances I like to read when I need to take a break from intense action fantasy series. I’m rating this book a three point eight because i can’t rate it the same as The Foxhole Court, or the To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before series, which I rated five stars and four star. To me those set the standards for my five and four stars for contemporary, so to me this was not as good as To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, so this had to fall below a four. Now, my standards of what a contemporary novel should be is probably different from other people. To me contemporary novels are usually my easy reads. I just want a good cute romance that isn’t a Nicholas Sparks dramatic romance. I want it to basically just be cute and adorable, with a reasonably good plot so it’s not too cheesy. That is exactly what surviving Adam Meade was. It was the cute, not too cheesy, enemy to in love story.

 

Pros

  • Claire and Adam’s banter. Claire’s character was very clever and witty. She always had something to snap back at Adam, and Adam was the same way. Claire didn’t just banter playfully with Adam, but with her family also. She was funny to read. A lot of girl characters in contemporary novels are shy or quiet. Claire wasn’t. She spoke what she felt she needed to say and wasn’t afraid to say it. She didn’t shy away from Adam’s remarks or how he treated her, she challenged him on it.
  • Adam was also very funny to read. He tended to be very honest, which made for a lot of great moments. Adam does fall into the cliche of the obnoxious football player character, but he doesn’t stick to that mold. He obnoxious feel starts to turn into just confidence in his actions and not doing so in a jerk like nature. I actually think Adam was a better written character than Claire. Adam seemed more real than Claire. I didn’t really see any faults in his character. The author lets you see that he has people he cares for and that he deeply cares for them and it makes him seem very real, where as Claire doesn’t have that same realness except for a somewhat selfish teen, which you could say is real in its own way. Adam, to me, took the spotlight in this book. He was incredibly charming and I loved him.
  • Another part of the book I really enjoyed was the realness of your last year in high school. That feeling of trying to figure out your next step in life, and realizing that a part of your life you’ve always known is about to end. That you’re closing a chapter of your life, which sometimes means leaving people behind in that chapter. Closing any chapter of life can be hard and this book depicts it very well.

 

Cons

  • Claire can get mad for literally no reason at all. She gets mad at Adam for him being realistic about there being a chance she might not be accepted into the college she wants. He wasn’t saying she was stupid, he was being realistic. Many people get turned down from the college of their dreams and she takes it as if he’s personally attacking her and saying that college is above her. He even apologizes for the chance that it came off that way and she still gets upset. She also sometimes does stupid things and acts like nothing is going happen from it, then gets sad when something does. She literally messes with someone’s property, and then gets sad when they get mad at her for it. I don’t know what she expected. I liked her character, but there was times I couldn’t help but think, “Girl, calm down and quit. Stop it.” I don’t want to say she is a brat, but she is a little. She’s a little selfish about the move, which is a little understandable since she was taken away from her friends her senior year. I can understand her being upset about moving, but there other times where she just gets annoying. She literally hides something from Adam, gets told that she needs to tell him, admit she needs to tell him, but doesn’t…. What? I don’t understand? I like Claire but there are times where she is too much of a teenager.
  • There were parts that weren’t needed, and seemed to be basically filler. The author would put in a scene, just to contradict it with another scene a few paragraphs later. It made the first scene pointless.It didn’t help build character, or do anything for the plot, it was just filler that made no sense. I understand at times filler is needed, but when it contradicts itself or doesn’t affect the story then it’s harms you more than it helps you. There was also a introduction that was weird to me. “I’m Riley… Padar High School cheer captain and Luke Bryan fangirl.” I don’t know if it’s just me, but I have never heard someone introduce themselves like this unless it’s the first day of school and the teacher is making the class do a get to know me type of thing. I have never heard a person just do this themselves. Her saying she was the cheer captain was ok, but the fangirl part was weird to me. I’ve never had anyone introduce themselves to me like that before, or seen anyone introduce themselves to anyone like that. Maybe that’s just me though. I am socially awkward, so maybe?…

 

For what I read contemporary for, this book was good. It was something I didn’t have to focus hard on and it was overall enjoyable. I laughed, smiled at cute moments. Claire seemed bratty at times, but it’s clear it wasn’t because she thought she was better than everyone. It was more as if she didn’t know she was being bratty and based on what you see from her character, she would of probably felt bad if someone had pointed it out. Claire was a typical teenager who makes many mistakes and learns from that. I don’t think it’s too much of a fault in her character and doesn’t make the book awful. Teenagers are always know as hormonal brats so a lot of people write them as that, and some teenagers are like that, I’ve meet them, and avoided them. If Claire was a complete brat I wouldn’t have finished the book(there are a lot of books I stopped reading for that reason) Claire was dramatic, and going through a stressful time for a teenager. I thought the book was cute and if you like cute romances I think this wasn’t bad. It probably had some of the best banter I’ve read in contemporary. It didn’t seem forced. It seemed perfectly natural and fit perfectly.

Fantasy · Retelling · Romance

Flame in the Mist

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Flame in the Mist

Renee Ahdieh
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Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons

Year Released: 2017

Date Read: September 24, 2018

Genre: Fantasy, Retelling, Romance

Grade: 3 Stars/ C

“Hattori Mariko was not just any girl. She was more.”

-Renee Ahdieh

Flame in the mist is a Japanese retelling of Mulan. Mariko’s father is giving Mariko to the emperor’s son to marry because as a girl, it is the only way Mariko can help him, in his eyes. On her way to meet her future husband, her group is attacked by a group known as the Black Clan, killing everyone but her. Mariko escapes and knows that if there is a time to prove to her family that she is worth more than marriage, now is the time. Mariko dresses as a boy and makes her way into the Black Clan’s to find out why, and possibly get revenge, but she finds out it’s not easy to see people as villains when you start to get to know them.

I absolutely love Mulan. I think Mulan is one of the best movies Disney has ever produced, and I know that Disney did not come up with the story of Mulan, but it’s the famous retelling everyone knows and it’s the one I know. I know it’s wrong to compare this book to the movie, but I want to compare it in this way, because I feel it’s something that a book should have. One of the best thing about Mulan, was the characters. They main group of characters had major characteristics and were not bland. Shang, was someone who the viewers were able to see through right away from him talking to other characters. He was warned that he was being watched and if he failed it would reflect not on him, but his family. Because of this, he forced himself to come off as hard, *cue I’ll make a man out of you*. But from the beginning we already know that’s not his character. That he isn’t a hardass, he is just being pushed to not fail. He is a side character, but he is not just his title, he had almost just as much character develop as Mulan. Mulan is big for the female empowering, because it’s characters brought it to life. There was so much to them that they made an impact. This is something every book should do, and that’s why I will compare that aspect to the movie. The movie did the characters beautifully, and the beginning of the this book did too, which gave it so much potential, but the ending ruined it. Throughout the whole part where Mariko was a boy, I was in love with this book. It was the movie Mulan, but it wasn’t. It was darker, the characters were their own, the story was its own version of Mulan. It was Mulan, but in it’s own way, she made the story hers. Mariko’s character was incomparable to Mulan, because she was so different, but she was just as great, but well get into her later. The build of the characters were great. That was the best of Mulan, watching the characters create bonds with each other, and the bonds getting so deep that no one truly cared that she was a women, and it’s sad that’s where this book messed up. I was so in love with this book up until the part where Mariko is found out. The second that happened, it ruined the whole book for me. The characters from that moment of stopped growing, they were all rushed, I know nothing about Ranmaru besides that he is the leader, his love interest, and something else I can’t say, but I will say that this part doesn’t even really matter because it was mentioned and not expanded on. I will get into all of it more in the cons, especially the romance, but even though I hated the last, i did like the beginning so I will talk about those moments in the pros.

 

Pros

  • Mariko. As I said above, Mariko is a beautiful remodel of Mulan. Mariko has the same principal of Mulan, where she wants to be seen as more than just a women, but the thoughts and approach are very different, and that’s the beauty of Mariko. There is a part where Mariko basically says that she hates being a women, but within that, it’s actually deeper. Mariko hated being a women, because of what she’s been told women can and can’t do. Her brother is this amazing samurai, but she is valued as nothing more than a bride to sell. Everyone refuses to see her as anything more, so she hates being a women because those thoughts have tainted her into thinking she will never amount to anything more than a bride. It’s not that she hates being a women, it’s that she hates the views of what a women is. Mairko is not a physical fighter, she is not a warrior like Mulan, but she is a fighter. She doesn’t see it, but in all of her actions she is fighting the mold. One line in this book hit me harder then it probably did most, but I could tell the author put it in because of how strong the line was. When Mariko cuts off her hair the author writes, “Later she would marvel at how she did not hesitate. Not ever for an instant” I read this line and stopped reading. I just stared at it because of how perfect this line was. I completely understood it. To a lot of people, cutting your hair is nothing. They do it and it doesn’t matter, but for other people, the thought of cutting your hair is like someone stealing part of you. As someone who has always been praised on their long hair, and how it’s so feminine, I deeply connected with what Mariko meant by this. To everyone else Mariko’s own worth is being a beautiful women, and one of the traits of being a ‘beautiful women’ is long hair(not that I agree, I think there are many women with short hair that are gorgeous.) The long hair becomes part of who you are, and I’m aware this seems shallow, that’s the point. It’s just hair, nothing more, yet it’s something that has so much thought put into it. It can define a person. I personally could not cut my hair unless it’s dire, and that’s what happened with Mariko. Her thoughts were so overcome with survival and proving something that she didn’t think about it, she just cut it off. That’s something she would never done. This part was Mariko saying goodbye to the girl who was nothing more than a bride, and hello to the Mariko who is so much more. It’s the little things like this that made Mariko so good. It’s terrible to say cutting your hair is brave, because it isn’t, it’s the symbol of it the was brave. Mariko is doing something that will change her whole life, and she didn’t think twice about it. The hair is basically a symbol, the same as it was when Mulan stared at her reflection as she wiped off her makeup and cut off her hair. It’s a symbol of willing to change and do something more.
  • One of the best parts of Mulan was how the men influenced Mulan, and also how she influenced them. It’s happens in this book to. Mariko is very logical, which most people don’t think is strength. (Like Ren when he says, “Knowledge feeds no one. Nor does it win any wars.” It most definitely does. Wars are won through war tactician, and traps have been used to catch animals for a long time. Knowledge feeds people, and wins wars all the time. I do not understand…) Okami, and a few others, teach her that logic can be strength, you just need to learn how to use it as so. They teach Mariko that she doesn’t have to physically fight to be strong. Now Mariko’s influence on them isn’t as strong. She just helps them make weapons. She doesn’t really change their minds about women like the movie of Mulan because Okami states that it never mattered to him in the first place, but I like it still. It just shows Mariko that there was men who were capable of seeing women as something more in the first place.
  • The Japanese culture. I’m not Japanese so I can’t say she did perfect, I wouldn’t know, but from what I know about Japan, she did good. I’ve always loved learning about other cultures. I think it’s something everyone should do. It’s just as important to learn about other people’s cultures as it is to learn about your own. The author used Japanese words, she stuck to Japanese traditions, she knew what seppuku was and when it’s done. It’s clear she studied before writing, which means a lot. She knew that the family name came before their first name, she knew the correct titles to put on the ends of names, she used Yokai and used them correctly. She could of not put the titles like sama and chan, after the names, but because she did it made it seem so much more accurate. Like I said, I can’t speak for a Japanese person and say this is matches perfectly to Japaneses culture. What I know is for anime,( I know that sounds sad and anime is not an accurate depiction of Japan, I learned little things, like the titles that go with people names, and how their schools works, watching anime does not mean you know Japan), and some of the things I either looked up on my own to learn more, or watched videos of people who live in Japan talking about it. I’m not an expert on Japan, so I can’t say that it’s accurate, but from what I know, It’s does a good job.

 

Cons

 

  • The romance. I love romance. I don’t read a lot of books that don’t have some form of romance. I like reading about the bonds people form as they get to know each other, and that’s very important in romance. This book was setting up for an ok romance, but it definitely one of the worse I’ve read, and I hate that because I know this author can write really good romance, I’ve read it, but I hated this one, for one main reason. It was so rushed. The attraction between the characters were so slow building, which is good, but then out of nowhere they were kissing and in love with each other, it made no sense. It really didn’t. I even read a review that talked about how the romance made no sense before I read it. I thought they were exaggerating, but they weren’t. I liked Okami and their relationship could of been good, if it didn’t just randomly happen. One second Okami is suspicious and doesn’t trust Mariko, the next they are kissing, WHAT?!? How does this make any sense. There was no transition. I would rather there had been no romance.
  • The whole second half of the book was rushed. All the characters but Mariko lost any importance and didn’t develop. The beginning was so good, but the ending was so bad to me. I hate saying that. I don’t like saying that it felt like the author didn’t put a lot of work into it, but that part felt like that. Maybe it’s just what she wanted, and if it is, that’s great, it’s your book, you write the story you want to hear, don’t write it for anyone else but you, I just thought it was rushed. All the characters were all in the process of developing and after Mariko is found out, the development goes in the trash. Ranmaru became literally nothing. Maybe she had a page or word limit so she couldn’t expand on them more, I don’t know. I feel like if the book was longer she would of been able to make the characters better, which would of made the story better, and I might have even really liked it.
  • I didn’t like reading the multiple perspectives. A lot of time multiple perspectives can be iffy. I write a lot using it so I understand the appeal of it, and I understood why she used it. It was important to see what Kenshin and the Emperor’s side was doing, but they were just boring compared to Mariko’s side. I didn’t enjoy reading them. I found myself just skimming their chapters towards the end because my mind couldn’t focus on them

“The only power any man has over you is the power you give him.” 
― Renee Ahdieh

I wanted to read this book as soon as I found out it was a Mulan retelling. It made it better when I saw it was done by Renee Ahdieh. I loved The Wrath & The Dawn series, which I believe is a Beauty and the Beast retelling, which is another one of my favorites fairy tales. She had done it so well, I loved her characters, the romance, all of it. I was excited to see her bring another fairy tale to life like she did that one, but I didn’t like this one at all compared to The Wrath & The Dawn. If you want to see Renee Ahdieh’s potential then read those. I’ve read many Beauty and the Beast retellings, but I think her’s is the best. This is the only Mulan retelling i’ve read and I didn’t like it. I don’t think it does Mulan justice. I know I keep saying it, but I really loved the first half. The first half was so good, it held so much potential. Part of me wishes I never read the second half so I would of loved this book. I can’t say I recommend this book to anyone. If you want to read any of Renee Ahdieh’s work I do recommend The Wrath & The Dawn. This book also doesn’t change my opinion on her. Not all of an author’s works are great and hits. If she puts out another series, I will still most likely give it a try. This one was just a miss for me and I don’t see myself reading the second one, which I hate. I wish I could read it, but it wouldn’t entertain me so I don’t see myself reading it.

 

“Be as swift as the wind. As silent as the forest. As fierce as fire. As unshakable as the mountains.”

-Renee Ahdieh

VS.

“Tranquil as a forest… We must be as swift as a coursing river. (Be a man) with all of the force of a great typhoon. (Be a man) With all of the strength of a raging fire. 

-Mulan, I’ll Make A Man Out Of You

I had to. I love the song. It matched so perfectly that I hoped she did it because of the song. Plus Shang is the best Disney love interest, no one tops him.

 

Contemporary · LGBT · Romance · Sports · Uncategorized

The King’s Men (All for the Game #3)

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The King’s Men

Nora Sakavic

23594461

Publisher: Self Published by Nora Sakavic

Release Year: 2014

Date Read: September 17, 2018

Genre: Sports, LGBT, Contemporary, Young Adult,

Grade: A+/ 5 Stars

***This book contains torture, murder, talk of sexual abuse, gangs, and physical abuse. If you are sensitive to any of these then either read with cautious or do not read at all*** 

“Fight because you don’t know how to die quietly. Win because you don’t know how to lose. This king’s ruled long enough—it’s time to tear his castle down.”

― Nora Sakavic,

 

Neil’s time to stay with Foxes is almost up. Soon he will have to abandon the place he has made within the team. He thought it would be easy, but he broke all the rules his mother taught him by befriending and trusting the other Foxes, and broke even bigger one when he found himself attracted to one. Neil still thinks he can just run away, but as the time gets closer he starts to see how hard it is. He still has to win against the Raven’s, hurt Riko in the process, and find a way to escape the same monster he has been running from for eight years. The truth of Neil’s life is bound to come out, but when, and how will the people he found himself caring about take it.

 

The first book was good, the second book seemed impossible to top, the third did just that. It’s been a while since I loved a series so much. Every part of this book was amazing. It made me cry again, both from sadness and relief. Watching Neil deal with it all to the point of breaking made me feel broken with him. The book had me pulled inside it so deep that I refused to do anything else that would tear me way until I finished it. The day after reading it all I had done was look up pictures about the series, and go reread my favorite scenes over and over again. I have become obsessed with all of it. It is now in my top five, though i’m not sure where it’s placed exactly yet. I just know that it’s there. It kicked a book out. This book was amazing on it’s own but, it’s characters is what made this book shine. I’ve been comparing it to Maggie Stiefvater’s Raven Boys books but, I think this one is better, in my opinion. I just liked it more and literally can’t stop thinking about it. All I want right now is to get the physical copies and go back and reread and analyze the whole book based on what I know. That’s basically what I’ve been doing with the last book on and off all day. I can not get over the characters. WHY IS THIS SELF PUBLISHED!?!?!

 

“He’d come to the Foxhole Court every inch a lie, but his friends made him into someone real.”

― Nora Sakavic,

Pros

  • Her characters. I know nothing about this author. I googled her and saw literally two sentences about her, but based on her writing, it is like she goes out and people watches all day. She knows how to write a person, not just a character. She didn’t make her characters all the stereotypical characters and let them ride on that. She took them, changed them, and made them into real people. Kevin is probably the best character to use to explain what I mean. Kevin is what would be the typical star player. He is famous, has the perfect nice smile that people love, plays at one of the best schools, and seems like he has his whole life together, but of course he doesn’t because that’s the normal stereotype. Nora took the normal sports star stereotype and remodeled it. Sure, on the outside Kevin is perfect. He is strong and looks like he is always happy, but that’s not Kevin. Kevin is really someone who has spent his whole life owned, and compared to someone else to the point that he started to just become a number. He was player, a robot, and that was it. He has been beaten down his whole life, by a family that isn’t even his, so much that he cowers just when he hears their name. The thought of facing them makes him shake and go into a full on panic mode that he can only stop by knocking back a few drinks. Exy has become his whole entire life and nothing else can’t fit in there.  Kevin is not the happy, strong person at all. He is someone who is scared of losing because of what has been ingrained in his head. Nora Sakavic took the star player who was seemed indestructible and put a reason why he seemed indestructible. Even though Kevin’s life before the foxes seems like something out of a drama, Kevin himself doesn’t. Kevin seems real. It’s like the book has tricked me into thinking I’ve always known who Kevin is. That’s how all her characters are written. Andrew would be the stereotypical ‘bad boy’ but nothing about him is stereotypical besides that he has a bad past. I’ve seen many authors create well written characters who stuck with you, but Nora Sakavic created people. I’ve never seen characters who have seemed so real before. There is a big part of me that feels like I have to go to the Exy game tomorrow or Coach Wymack is going to sign me up for a marathon.
  • Andrew and Neil. Every review I’ve written for this series so far has has Andrew as a reason to read it. Of course this one is going to have him. I love everything about his character. I love that his character doesn’t really change except in subtle ways. Andrew is still the same person who likes to treat life like a game, like during the games when he uses his perfect aim to nail people in the head with the ball, he is still aggressive and doesn’t like to deal with people. It’s the little changes in him from the first book that show a lot. The way he is willing to tell Neil little parts about his life if Neil is willing to answer honestly about his. The way he protects Neil from serious harm. The way he is willing to work with the other members a little more. He is getting closer to people, letting Aaron and Neil in. There is just so much about him that shows growth and that he is willing to grow with the help of others. Neil and Andrew are perfect together. They are one of my favorite couples I’ve read. It’s the way they interact. The way Neil will not touch Andrew because he knows Andrew doesn’t like it, and if Andrew does let Neil touch him, Neil won’t move his hand from the spot Andrew put it. Even to get his attention, Neil will not touch him. He will either grab his sleeve or put his hand out in front of Andrew to try to draw his attention to him. He doesn’t touch him. Then there’s what Andrew has given away for Neil. He let his secret about him being gay out because he wanted to make sure Neil was safe, he let people see his caring side(even though it is still aggressive somewhat), he starts to play Exy more seriously for him, and then there’s even more stuff that I can’t say because it’s all spoilers. They work so well together. My favorite chapter that shows them so well is Chapter Fourteen. It shows perfectly how Andrew is with Neil and what he would do for him. I loved that chapter. I loved the chapter after with the trash bags(You’ll understand if/when you read it) Neil and Andrew are a couple that if you didn’t already know from looking it up, you would of never known they would have gotten together. They have come a long way from the first chapter when Andrew hit Neil with a raquet.
  • The part where Neil broke down. I can’t go into a lot of it because it’s spoilers, but that whole scene I was fine into Neil said one line. I didn’t even realize exactly what he meant in that line until I went to the next page and saw what he was saying. I went back and read the phrase again and immediately my vision was blurry with tears. Within that one sentence was Neil breaking and giving up hope. Throughout the whole book it was him trying, hoping that he could life the life he wanted, and that line was him shattering all the hope. Throughout the rest of that whole part I was in tears until something good happened, and then it was tears of relief, and then it was once again tears for Neil’s broken state. I’ve always been able to handle reading more messed up things in books, because I know it’s not real(except for the second book in that series. It was terrifying how real that felt. Like I was in that room), but this one, because of Neil, affected me. I know I have compared this series to some sports anime for how the sport part of this book feels, but this one scene reminded me of Tokyo Ghoul. It reminded me of one of the times Kaneki breaks. One of those moments where he just couldn’t take it anymore and broke apart, laughing because he didn’t know what to feel anymore. I felt like I was watching a scene from Tokyo Ghoul. From me that is a huge compliment. Tokyo Ghoul is my favorite manga/anime. (If you want to know what sentence i’m talking about, Chapter Twelve, 24th paragraph from the end of the chapter, the last comma section of the second sentece, section starts with “and wished…”)
  • I could probably go on with pros forever, making each character they’re own pro, but that’s a lot. I’ll leave it off with the ending. I love how the ending was done. While there is a huge part of me that is screaming, MORE!!!, I think the way she ended it was very well done. (Though if she wants to write more I would definitely read it, without a doubt.) She left it with one chapter of Neil’s life ending and with him beginning another. It was a great way to end the book. Though there is still answers that I want, like, Aaron’s court case, Andrew seeing his foster mom at said court case, Kevin feelings on what happened with Riko. I wish we could of seen those, but even without seeing it I still thought it was a good ending. Endings can be hard, and I think Nora found a great way to close it off.

 

Cons

  • One of the things I noticed throughout all the books was the literal writing, like the grammar and use of words. There was a few things that were awkward sentences, and some things that should of had commas to help with the pacing, make it easier to read. There was a few times I had to go back and reread something. And if this was published by a major company this would be a bigger con then what it is, but the fact that she published this herself means there’s a chance she didn’t have an editor, which makes it barely a con. It’s a con if it bothers you too much. I understand how hard it can be to go back and try to edit your own work to the same extent an editor would. There is many times when I write something, it seems like it makes sense, but then someone else has a hard time reading it. For what she did, I don’t see it was much of a con, I just thought it should be mentioned that yes, there are times when the sentences are weird, or a comma is needed. And there was one sentence that I think was missing a word. I don’t know if my e-book app messed it up because it does mess some of my books up in some other ways. If I ever get a physical copy, which I hope to soon, then I will know if the author just forgot a word and never noticed.
  • There was only one inconsistent thing that I noticed. Neil with the media. In the beginning he didn’t want to be in front of camera, then he would make a huge show of it, but then he would go back to being scared of being in front of the cameras out of fear of being found. He would go back and forth with that a lot. I’ve also seen people say that Neil’s thoughts on Andrew were inconsistent, but I think it was more of Neil was in denial about everything. He didn’t want it to be real  because in his mind it was impossible for many reasons. His mother’s warning, him supposed to be leaving, and that fact that it’s Andrew. That was just part of Neil’s character, not an inconsistency.
  • Aaron. This is a con for me. I hate Aaron. The only parts I like about Aaron is what he did for Andrew in the second book, and when he says that he is going to leave and pretend he doesn’t know them, because I think that is funny. Otherwise Aaron is a cowardly dick, and I don’t like him. Everyone acts like Andrew is the dick, but Andrew only reacts when someone bothers him or his people. Aaron is a dick to everyone for no reason. He also instigate fights and arguments. I couldn’t stand Aaron. He was a brat. What he said to Neil at the mountains pissed me off. Who thinks that’s ok to say to anyone. And then he acts like his brother being gay is bothering him. It’s like he would rather just bring Andrew down more than help to pick him back up. Andrew isn’t the best brother but at least he is trying in his own way. I hate Aaron, but I do feel like his character was important and was needed, but I still hate him.

“He hadn’t realized how lonely he was until he met the Foxes.”

-Nora Sakavic

If anyone couldn’t tell, i’m obsessed with these books. This will be a series I will read again. I will buy and annotate, with sticky notes, all over some physical copies.I want them at my doorstep right now so I can get to work on it. Reading these books also is a help to my writing. It shows how much studying and working on your characters can make a book a masterpiece. She did so many things that I love and I’m still wanting to know why she is self published!! Was it a choice? Or was it because no one would buy the rights? If it’s the latter than they missed out on a great opportunity. I also have no idea if Nora is planning on writing anything else, I hope she is working on more books. I think she’s talented, and whatever she comes out with I will read. I don’t feel ready to be done with these books, but there’s nothing left to read. I’m going to miss the five foot, blonde, monster, who isn’t really a monster, and my two boys with their Exy obessions.

“Neil had been doing one stupid thing after another all year long and this has turned into one of the best years of his life.”

― Nora Sakavic