Review Me Twice - No Easy Way Out by Dayna Lorentz

This week, we're reviewing No Easy Way Out (the sequel to No Safety In Numbers).  Honestly, I'm really torn about these books.  I like the concept and the characters, and how they're getting gritty and everything is falling apart and people are turning back to their basic animalistic instincts.  It's all very Lord of the Flies (but with more technology... and with girls.)

But here's the thing.  It's all very drawn out.  Lorentz really, probably, could have put these two books into one book and it would have been fine.  Maybe even the third one too (I don't know; I haven't read it.)  Or, if not one book, definitely didn't need to split the books into more than two books.  Yes, book one had this awesome cliff hanger that made me love the whole book, but book two is turning into more teenage drama than a survival story, kind of turning me off to the whole thing.

Really, I think she needs to pick up the pace a little.  I'm supposed to feel panicked and scared, like her characters, and I really don't ever get to that point until I'm nearing the end of her books, which gives me the idea that maybe, she just needs to cut some of it out.

Cassy is absolutely right about the pacing problem. I put this book down when I finished and said aloud, "This woman didn't write three books. She wrote one really long book and someone told her she had to cut it into three parts." Which is precisely what happened to Tolkien and the Lord of the Rings books (they're three volumes of the same book, not three separate books) but these people have electronic key cards and a Senator, not Sting and Gandalf.

When we reviewed the first book, I said I didn't like how blase the adults all were about the kids running amok and doing as they pleased. That changes in this book, and I like the way it's handled (not as in, I approve of the behavior of the characters, but as in, this is interesting for me to read).

I definitely want to read the third book, if only because I've gone this far, and I want the ending. I also have a theory about the disease ravaging the mall (which I'm pretty sure is now two diseases because no flu in the world acts like what was happening there in the last few chapters) and I want to know how that pans out.

I like these books, but they aren't rereading material. And I reread most things, or would be willing to. It just takes a long time for things to happen (though, to Lorentz's credit, I said out loud at one point "something needs to happen soon or I'm going to fall asleep" and on the next page, something definitely happened).

Safety First

This week's book, No Easy Way Out, is the second in a series (started by No Safety in Numbers) about being trapped in a mall because reasons (terrorism, viruses, government quarantine, pick a few). And the other day, when I had just picked this book up, I found myself at a mall. And I thought, what would I do if, right this moment, they locked down the mall for a similar situation? It was less legitimate-anxiety and more what-a-fun-thought-experiment, but I do actually make a habit of having an escape plan from any location I find myself in.

I didn't notice that I have this habit until I started working in a library. I was at that early point in my career (known as "the very beginning of it") where I had impostor syndrome (when you think, "you actually trust ME with this? But I don't know anything!!!") and I was in charge of the reference desk, and therefore, I was the go-to person in case of an emergency in the library. So I started coming up with imaginary scenarios that I would have to handle. I was inspired by the old xkcd comic about planning for velociraptor attacks.

So I still do this. I think it's fun. And it could possibly come in handy some day. It's part of my job to know the emergency evacuation procedures at work, but it's nice to be a competent customer or visitor in other places (schools, stores, hospitals, offices, other people's homes) in case of emergency. Or even in case of mild inconvenience. You see someone you don't want to talk to standing outside the normal exit? Be aware of other available exits. Pretend they're a raptor.

Favorites: Redo!

Today we're getting a second chance at picking a favorite from the past year.

I call a mulligan on my favorite short story. Actually, I just wanted to talk about a close runner-up, because I think the one I got a tattoo of should trump this one, but still.

There's a chapter in Sideways Stories from Wayside School for Maurecia (each chapter is more like a short story about one of the students from the class). It's about ice cream, because Maurecia really likes ice cream. So much so, in fact, that she has tried every flavor of ice cream in existence, and is now bored with ice cream. Mrs. Jewls makes ice cream for each student in the class and names each flavor after them. Everyone's reactions to other people's flavors is the same as their attitude toward that person (for example, Maurecia really likes Todd so she really likes Todd-flavored ice cream) but it turns out that nobody likes their own flavor, because their own flavor is what they taste when they aren't tasting anything.

I've said before that a lot of the stories from that book have stuck with me through the years, but this one pops up unexpectedly. Usually it's when I'm thinking about nothing at all, and suddenly I'm aware that I'm thinking nothing at all (so therefore now I'm really thinking about that fact instead of actually thinking about nothing) and then it triggers my brain to think about what I taste when I'm tasting nothing, like I'm eating Alex ice cream, which would taste like nothing to me. Then I get really aware of my tongue and get fed up with the whole thing and go do something productive just to stop the insanity.

I'm calling a mulligan on my Favorite Picture Book.  Not that I don't still love me some Fancy Nancy (because I do.  She's fabulous.)  But over the holiday season, I got introduced to pretty much the best picture book ever.

Now, I know what you're going to say.  "But Cassy, it doesn't HAVE pictures, ergo, not a picture book!"  But, it is, because it's the right length and the book is set up like a picture book and the words in it have a picture like quality.

So why do I love this book so much?  Because it's hilarious.  And it's funny.  And it makes the reader say silly things, which always makes kids laugh.  I mean, just look at this!!!

What kid wouldn't love something like that?  Especially, when it's an adult saying it (and, in fact, the beginning of the book warns you that the book makes adults say silly things.)  Basically, even though the book has no pictures, I think it's fun and silly and ridiculous and was so awesome, it kicked miss Fancy Nancy out of the number one slot of my favorite picture book.

It's An Epidemic

No Safety in Numbers in all about epidemics and spreading disease and people dying via a virus, so I figured I would give you some other great books that are based on viruses.  It's not really sometimes we read a lot of in this blog, so you're going to get some stuff we haven't see before!

The Birtchbark House is one that I read in college and is probably one of the best Native American literature books I've read.  Right up there with The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.  It follows the year of a Native American family in 1847.  We see them building their summer home, dealing with preparations of the winter and all of it is told through the eyes of Omakayas.

So why do I recommend this for an epidemic book?  Well, there is a huge smallpox outbreak and there is a large part of the book where Omakayas is dealing with not only her own sickness, but the sickness of her family and tribe members.  It's moving and heart-wrenching and just pretty much wonderful.

Ok, so this was a book I won a REALLY long time ago off of Goodreads as an ARC.  And, to be honest, the book does get a LITTLE over the top with all the things that happen to this family (seriously.  Everything that could go wrong, does.)  However, the book is about a massive outbreak of bird flu during a snowstorm.  The family lives in the mid-north west, (where the snowstorm hits), but the Bird flu hits the whole nation and lasts for years.

Even though the story line for the family is a little crazy, I do have to admit that Buckley is REALLY good at writing panic.  I FELT panicked reading this book.  I mean, really freaked out while reading it.  Definitely worth picking up if epidemics are your thing.

Who doesn't love a good parasitic alien is taking over the world novel?  That's what I thought.  I put this on the list because, while as the reader you know that it's an alien life form, the society as a whole doesn't.  They take over these bodies and infect them and drive them crazy and then completely disintegrate them so that no one has any idea what is causing all of this to happen.  As a reader, we only know because we're watching it happen first hand to one of the characters.

While I DO love this book and it's immensely well done, read it with caution.  Sigler is INCREDIBLY graphic.  I have a particularly high tolerance for things and there were even times that it was a little much for me.  So, if you're especially grossed out by things, he may not be the one for you.  If not, definitely pick him up.

Remember: Dayna Lorentz?

Back in March of 2014 (the day before my wedding, if you recall) we reviewed No Safety in Numbers by Dayna Lorentz. It's the first book of a series that takes place in a mall where a terrorist threat has been discovered, so the people in the mall get locked in, for the safety of themselves and/or the outside world.

This week, we're reading and reviewing the second book in the series, No Easy Way Out. There is also a third book, No Dawn Without Darkness.

Review Me Twice - Unwholly by Neal Shusterman

If we were going to kick of a new year, I'm glad we decided to kick it off with this book.  I don't know if any of you have remembered, but Alex and I both LOVED Unwind.  I named it my favorite book of that year, and while she didn't, it was a close second for her.  We both have mentioned it more than a few times, I fangirled over Neal Shusterman when I met him, and I recommend that book to almost everyone I possibly can.

It's good to know that Unwholly lived up to its predecessor.  We got to see all of our favorite characters again: Lev, Conner and Risa all returned, but they weren't the only ones.  We got to see knew friends and old.  There were new enemies and new risks and new things coming at them from all angles that they had to deal with.

My favorite new character was Cam, a boy who was made completely out of parts from unwound kids.  You're not really sure if you want to love him or hate him because, just like the kids who are unwound, his rewound status is completely not of his own doing.  So really, should you hate the guy because other people decided to take parts of kids and put them together into him?

I really liked the ending of this book, because you knew, just KNEW that things were starting to come to a head.  Book three is going to be filled with a LOT and a LOT is going to happen (alternatively, I just happen to know that book three and four were supposed to be one book and had to be split into two, so what does that tell you?)

If you haven't read Unwind, well really, why do you bother to read this blog, because we've been telling you to read that forever now, but really, Unwholly was just as good and should be picked up.

Loved it. Can I just leave it at that? Because I loved it. And then I read UnSouled because I couldn't stop. I'm currently awaiting Undivided from the library.

I adore the concept of Cam, the first Rewound person in the world. By the end of this book, I wasn't entirely sure whether I liked him or not (I made up my mind during UnSouled). I love what Lev gets up to in this book. I really like Miracolina, because other than her, you don't get much of the true tithe perspective (she really insists that she still wants to be tithed, for even longer than Lev did in the first one).

If you like Unwind, you will absolutely, without a doubt, like Unwholly (and UnSouled).

Happy 2015!

Happy New Year, everyone!

You already know about January being our Month of Sequels, but guess what? All year, each month is going to be a Month of Something! We won't announce them ahead of time, but every month this year will have a theme, because... well, because we feel like it.

Happy New Year, and here's to 52 more books to review!