Daisy's Review of The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey

Title/Author: The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey
Publisher/Date published: Orbit, June 19th 2014
How I got this book: bought the audiobook

Goodreads summary: NOT EVERY GIFT IS A BLESSING

Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class.

When they come for her, Sergeant Parks keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don't like her. She jokes that she won't bite. But they don't laugh.

Melanie is a very special girl.

Let's start of by saying that I hadn't realised this was a zombie book before I started it. And zombie books are not my thing. But this is an interesting variety of zombies, and since I am conv65nced that one day an infectious disease will conquer mankind, this was actually a pretty scary concept to me. But because the summary isn't very clear on this, let me clarify for you: even though it's an interesting sort of zombie, it's still a zombie book.

All the things that give me nightmares are in this book: eating of people, apocalypse is near and just basically the scary thing that is a fungus spreading all over the planet infecting people. Also, you don't want a fungus to infect you, cause it's just plain nasty. But if this whole thing works for you, than you'll probably enjoy The Girl With All the Gifts. I have once again discovered that it's not really for me.

I did enjoy the first part of the book, where we meet Melanie and the whole class and everyone. I liked Melanie, she's smart and brave and pretty much a good little girl. And she's definitely special and different. I never really got to like Helen Justineau and dr Caldwell is the scientist villain, who also resembles a war criminal, I really hated her. I did respect Sergeant Parks, he's no-nonsense and falls back on his military training, and in the end he's a hero in my book, though I'm still not sure if I necessarily like him all that much. But I could respect him and sometimes that's enough.

I was never sucked fully into the story, while I cared in the beginning what was happening to Melanie, I just couldn't see her the same way anymore after one particular scene.
SPOILER ALERT! LIGHT UP TO READ:
The scene where she's gnawing on the kitty and eating it alive was just horrible. Since we recently got a cat of our own, I seriously could not find myself caring about what happened to her after that, cause she frigging ATE A KITTY. Which is described pretty graphically. I just cannot.END OF SPOILER
I also felt that there were a couple of too-stupid-to-live moments from more than one of the characters, who are supposed to be pretty smart, so that was off-putting for me.

About halfway through I found myself a bit bored and I know so many people have loved The Girl With All the Gifts, but honestly, I'm feeling a bit meh about it. I considered DNF-ing it, but because I'd heard such good things about it, I made it all the way to the end, but I'm not sure if it was worth the time I put into finishing it. Everything felt so bleak, that I never had any hope at all and was constantly thinking 'well, this really can't end well', which somehow made it not as scary as it should have been and just a bit me waiting for things to start going south. Which I'm obviously not going to tell you about if I was right or not cause if this is your kinda book you should probably read it as lots of people did like it.

This basically just wasn't the book for me, and if you're not into zombies, then you probably won't like it either. This could be a case of 'it's not you, it's me', but with me really meaning it. Be warned that there are some pretty gruesome things in it.

My rating: 2 stars

Tahleen reviews: "Sabriel" by Garth Nix, narrated by Tim Curry

Title: Sabriel
Author: Garth Nix
Publisher: HarperTeen, 1997 (first published 1995 in Australia)
Narrator: Tim Curry

Rating: 5 stars

Sabriel has been around for 17 years at this point, and I read it back when I was in 8th or 9th grade for this first time. Recently I discovered a prequel is coming out in October of this year, and to prepare I decided to reread the three books in the series.

Sabriel is 18, and gets excellent marks at Wyverly College, where she has been a student since age 5. Her father, Abhorsen, visits every once in a while, either in the flesh or via the spirit world, as his work requires he be in the Old Kingdom across the wall. He is Abhorsen, necromancer and sorcerer who lays the dead to final rest, when they might walk the earth instead of staying in death. But when Sabriel receives her father's sword and his bandolier that holds the bells which control and banish the dead, she knows something is wrong and sets out to find her father, whom she suspects is trapped in death. Little does she know what kind of journey she will be undertaking; there is much more than her father's life at stake, and it is up to her to bring the Old Kingdom back from the chaos that has taken hold.

Garth Nix is a master. The world he has created is incredibly lush, dark, and complex, one that stuck with me long after I finished reading the books. And Sabriel is one admirable and amazing heroine. I remember wishing I were brave like her, comparing some of my discomforts with what she has to go through in this book and thinking my life wasn't so bad. Plus, the magic (both free and Charter) and dead creatures that walk in life are thrilling and chilling. I don't think I realized this is kind of a zombie book when I first read it; I loved it just as much upon rereading it, and zombies usually freak me out. So high fives to Nix for creating world with all kinds of zombies that is creepy, but won't give me nightmares. There is too much beauty and excitement in the Old Kingdom to keep me from reading about it.

One little note: I did listen to the audiobook the second time around, and as it's narrated by Tim Curry, it was pretty great. I did find myself having to rewind a lot though, as Curry's voice is pretty soothing and I found myself zoning out. But, I recommend it.

Disclosure: I got this audiobook from my local library.

Tahleen reviews: "Zombie Baseball Beatdown" by Paolo Bacigalupi

Title: Zombie Baseball Beatdown
Author: Paolo Bacigalupi
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2013
Narrator: Sunil Malhotra

Rating: 3.5 stars

Rabi, Miguel, and Joe have bigger problems than their losing Little League season. It's true, Rabi is a terrible hitter, and their coach doesn't seem to know what he's doing or how to create a batting line-up. Most of the other kids on the team would like to beat the three of them up, and know how to spin it to their advantage. Miguel's parents have been deported, and his aunt and uncle, who are also in the United States illegally, live in fear that they will be next. You'd think that would be enough problems for the boys. But all that pales in comparison when they stumble upon their coach—zombified. Finding a brain-hungry zombie is only the beginning, as their investigation leads them to the revelation that the zombie problem is much, much bigger than their small Iowan town.

Paolo Bacigalupi has managed to write a book, really a social commentary, on the meatpacking industry, immigration, racism, and zombies. You read that correctly.


I'm not really sure how I feel about this book. I enjoyed Sunil Malhotra's narration, mostly his zombie sounds, and it all works together as a cohesive unit, but part of me feels like Bacigalupi tried too hard to get too much in there, and it was like I was being lectured to at times. We leave this book knowing exactly how the author feels about certain hot-topic issues of the day.

I really enjoyed the relationships between the main characters and the development of their relationships with secondary characters, and the climax is great. The parts with the zombie attacks really make this book worth listening to; if it weren't for that, I'm not sure I would have bothered.  I am not so sure how I feel about the complete open-endedness of the book, but I can understand the logic behind Bacigalupi's choice to end it the way he does. It is impressive that Bacigalupi is able to write a readable and zombie-filled story while really writing a social commentary on two major contemporary issues, I just wish the execution had been a bit more subtle.

I listened to this book as part of the 2014 Hub Challenge. It was one of the Top Ten Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults.

Disclosure: I got a copy of this audiobook from my local library.

Paula wishes you all a Happy Turkey Day

At the beginning of October I got a new job. And I love it completely. However there has been one downside to it that is killing me. Here I am on week 4 with the same book. Granted it's A Feast For Crows so it's a long book- but still usually I would be long done with it and at least two others. By the time I get home from work all I want to do is crawl into bed without even glancing at a book. As a result I am now falling behind on my reading goal and will probably be finishing the year out with some graphic novels.

So in a quick post (so I can use my rare day of nothing to do to keep reading) I'll be listing my top 5 graphic novels/comic series. Consider it a mini TTT... but you know... on a different day... or something like that

1. Y: The Last Man by Brian K Vaughan - This was my first dive into things that weren't Mainstream comics and I judge everything I read on a scale from 1 to Y. It also introduced me to Vaughan who has written a majority of my favorite series (Runaways, Ex Machina, and his current story Saga)

2. Scott Pilgrim by Brian Lee O'Malley- The time in my life when I was reading this series weirdly paralleled a lot that happens in the series. So it holds a special place in my heart. And it is just so full of pop culture references and sweet moments and bitter sweet moments. I am so excited that he is now putting out a color edition of all the volumes AND that he has a new graphic novel coming out soon. 

<-- That cover is a on my wall in poster form :D

3. Superman: Red Son by Mark Miller- This is a standalone comic. Oh my gosh it rocked my entire world. The whole premise of it was what if Superman's ship landed in Russia instead of Kansas. It re-imagines a lot of DC mythos and characters. As a result you get this awesome dystopian crazy head trip Superman story.


4. Runaways by Brian K Vaughan- Oh no I already mentioned this series above. Am I allowed to put it on the list? It's a series that follows a group of teenagers who discover that their parents are super villains and who decide it's up to them to stop them. Of course things get out of hand and nothing goes quite right. And they have to decide whether they will be heroes or villains. My favorite part of this series? One of the characters has a psychically linked Velociraptor that protects her. It's like my dream come true. Annnd I love this series so much that I used some issues to make a pair of comic book shoes. Oooers time to show off:

5. The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman- I'm sure all of you have heard of this series now that the TV show has blown up. And although I've called it quits on trying to watch the show. I love this comic series. I love the world he has created and how it's less about "AHH LOOK ZOMBIES" and more about trying to retain what's left of humanity in a world that has torn apart. How sometimes humans who have been driven mad by the apocalypse can be a bigger threat than the zombies themselves. I will always look forward to the new trade of this series being released.




And if anyone has tips for reading on a 40+ hour work week. Throw them my way because I'm desperate here.

Also! Here's a turkey!

 Happy Thanksgiving  everyone. Hope your holiday is filled with joy (and tasty food!)

Bridget Reviews World War Z by Max Brooks

Title/Author: World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks
Publisher/Year Published: 2006 by Three Rivers Press
How I Got This Book: Bought it for my boyfriend, probably at Target
Why I Read This Book: See below :)
Rating: 4 Stars

I bought this book for my boyfriend several months ago. He loved it, so I thought I would give it a try, despite being rather annoyed at the whole preponderance of the zombie genre (it’s totally not my thing, although I do fully intend to read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies one day, just so I can say I did). As it turns out, World War Z was actually pretty awesome.

As it says in the subtitle, World War Z is the oral history of a fictional zombie war, compiled by an unnamed narrator. The interviews all show a different facet of the war—there are civilian, military, and medical standpoints from all over the world. That’s about it for an actual summary; since it’s supposed to be “history,” it doesn’t follow a traditional novel storyline, really.

At any rate, World War Z has quite a few things going for it, its hugely imaginative premise (not the zombie thing, but the history-of-the-zombie-war thing) and fantastic writing being the top two. As with most avid readers, I’m sure, I’ve always felt that a great plot can only survive on its own so long without good writing to support it (see: The Hunger Games—after a while, the choppy, fragmented writing style just irked me), but World War Z didn’t have that problem at all. I was glued to it while I was reading. Now, if only more history textbooks were written like this, I might have actually been interested in/done well in history in school.

It was a little difficult to keep track of all the names of people the narrator interviewed, if only because there were so many unfamiliar foreign names. But that was literally the only thing I could complain about with this book—everything else was incredible. Everything was told with an eerie sense of reality, and the amount of research he must have done for all the military sections, which were all pretty technical, is considerable. Even the amount of geographical research he must have done is mind-blowing. You’re really able to get a sense of complete and total war.

Even as someone who is really not into zombies at all, I found this book utterly captivating. Anyone who wants a good scare and an awesome view of what history just might be like post-zombie-war should definitely give World War Z a try.