Waiting on Wednesday: Truth (XVI 2) by Julia Karr

Waiting on Wednesday recognizes that we as bookies pine for books. This post is about what I am impatiently waiting for right now. It was started by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

This week I am totally pumped for the January 19th release of Truth, the sequel to Julia Karr's smash hit XVI. Nina is such a mesmerizing character that I couldn't help but get carried away in her story. Now we get to find out what happens next.

An exciting dystopian thriller, and sequel to XVI

Nina Oberon's life has changed enormously in the last few months. When her mother was killed, Nina discovered the truth about her father, the leader of the Resistance. And now she sports the same Governing Council–ordered tattoo of XVI on her wrist that all sixteen-year-old girls have. The one that announces to the world that she is easy prey to predators. But Nina won't be anyone's stereotype. And when she joins an organization of girls working within the Resistance, she knows that they can put an end to one of the most terrifying secret programs the GC has ever conceived. Because the truth always comes out . . . and the consequences can be deadly.

From Goodreads

How awesome does that sound? I mean getting your life turned on it's head is one thing, but this is a whole new level of intense. With compelling writing, memorable characters, & seat-clenching action in the first book I have no doubt that Truth will succeed at its task of being awesome.

Waiting on Wednesday: Truth (XVI 2) by Julia Karr

Patricia's Particularity's Halloween Bash: How KatnissEverdeen would celebrate Halloween & GIVEAWAY!

I'm proud to say that I am fortunate enough to participate in Patricia's Particularity's Halloween Bash. She'll be hosting giveaways & guest posts throughout the month of October. Be sure to check out the schedule of spooktacular fun!

I chose to explore how our favorite Hunger Games tribute would celebrate Halloween in her world. I'll be describing how I think she would participate in the Halloween festivities before we meet her in The Hunger Games.

Katniss Everdeen, our 16 year old heroine, will think that she has outgrown the kiddie faux-holiday that is Halloween, but will be obligated to take her little sister Prim around the neighborhood to collect their meager gifts. Over the years, more and more houses have stopped leaving their lights on to let the kids know that there are treats available. Even more kids have stopped going out because their families simply can't afford the luxury of a costume. Luckily Katniss & Prim's mother is a miracle worker & pulls together a simple, yet cute owl costume for Prim to wear made from old clothing scraps.

As they get ready to head out, Prim decides that Katniss needs to dress up too. Sure to please the young one, Katniss grabs a few bags of herbs from her mom's storage area to tie around her belt. When she returns announcing she's read to go, Prim exclaims that Katniss still isn't dressed. Katniss is sure to inform her that she is dressed as an apothecary, complete with medicinal herbs.

Gale shows up then to escort them around the neighborhood. There's really not much to see in The Seam since all the families here are coal miners, but there are a few houses where people are generous enough to spare an apple or slice of bread. The real score is in town at the merchant families' houses. While no one really has an easy life in District 12 (one of the farthest districts from The Capitol) the merchants seem to be doing better than everyone else because they have an actual product to sell. The miners just get what they can based on the hours in their shifts.

Prim starts to get quote excited to see all the other kids running around giddy & hyper because it's one of the few times she gets to interact in such a jovial manner. Things are quite regimented in the districts with lots of runs that must be followed. Prim enjoys just getting to be a kid. While everyone thinks she is oblivious to what's really going on around her, she knows that Katniss is doing a lot more than she should have to in order to provide for the family. Prim just wishes she could be more like her big sister.

As they wander the streets, moving from house to house, they come upon the Mellark family bakery. Despite having beat her son when he gave away their bread to a starving family, Mrs. Mellark is handing out warm sweet rolls to all the children stopping by. They smell divine & Katniss can't help but think back to the night that Mrs. Mellark's son Peeta saved Katniss's family by giving her some bread. Even now she looks around for him & finds him hard at work inside the bakery making the next batch of sweet rolls. Each of them takes a roll & thanks Mrs. Mellark right before the announcement is made that the curfew has not been extended & all citizens should return to their homes.

Gale walks the girls back to their mother thinking about how this wasn't the "huge waste of time" that Katniss had predicted. Actually, he rather enjoyed the respite from the daily grind of hunting, foraging & trading at the Hob. It was nice to think about what it will be like when he & Katniss get to walk their own children around the district.

So how about it folks? Do you think I hit the nail on the head with that dream? I sure hope so. It was a lot of fun to imagine myself as Katniss & to think about her emotions in such a serious way. I don't do much fiction writing, but after this I may start to think about taking it up as a hobby. There are a few stories I have started over the years (from English & Creative Writing classes), but nothing that I've thought about it years.

Now on to the real reason you might have stopped by. :D There will be 4 winners in this contest.

Grand Prize:
A Hunger Games wordle t-shirt from ParamountPacific on etsy.com
It comes in sizes Small to XL

Three runners up win:
Hunger Games bookmarks from sotheysay on etsy.com

To enter, go to Patricia's Particularity's Halloween Bash page. There are several giveaways going on, so be sure to enter as many as you'd like!!

Patricia's Particularity's Halloween Bash: How KatnissEverdeen would celebrate Halloween & GIVEAWAY!

Variant by Robison Wells review

Benson Fisher couldn't be more excited to have gotten the scholarship to Maxfield Academy. After bouncing from foster home to foster home he's finally getting the chance to really settle in somewhere & maybe have a normal teenage experience. Unfortunately that all goes down the drain as soon as he steps in the front doors. There are no teachers, there are no staff, there is razor wire & a tall fence surrounding the property and no one ever leaves. There are microchips in all the doors tied to each student's id & no one ever comes back from detention. Given all these circumstances, Benson finds himself very confused as to why all these teenagers are willing to stay. And then he starts to put things together.



No one here has family or friends. Nobody cares about these teens. And there is something supremely suspicious going on in regards to how things are run. There are 3 "gangs" at the school who bid on contracts for everything from grounds-keeping to security. So really, is it the other teens keeping everyone at the school... or is there someone higher up calling the shots? As Benson delves deeper into the troubling mystery surrounding this school, he's putting everyone in danger. The question is, who are they really in danger from & what is the worst that can happen?



Robison Wells has got a pretty good formula going in this book. Who could resist the rough & tough, down on his luck kid that refuses to take "no" for an answer? Benson has a bristly personality at best, but he is determined to convince everyone that things aren't as great as they seem & that everyone is being duped. Even more startling is just how well everyone seems to be taking their imprisonment. Granted they've all been there longer than Benson, but they've become complacent & complicit in their own restriction.



The dynamics between the 3 rival gangs really sets the tone for all character interaction. In a way, their divisions remind me of the gangs in S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders. Society is very much like the Socs wherein they claim to uphold the law & be of better moral character and yet they dole out punishments that never seem to suit the crime. They take orders without question & believe in their mission.



Havoc resembles the Greasers because these characters do the dirty work that makes the school continue to function, but they enjoy causing mayhem. They toe the line in regards to rules, breaking minor ones that won't cause too much trouble, but never crossing over into major infractions.



What The Outsiders didn't officially have is a third group of misfits, in the case of Variant we have the Variants (Vs for short). This other group is just that, it is the remainder of people who don't really fit in well enough in either of the other groups to have joined them. Benson winds up in this group because he doesn't buy into either of the other groups' missions. The Vs are consistent & kind of free-thinking, while the others are pretty rigid in their tenets.



The dialogue left something to be desired, but what can you expect from miscreants in an unsupervised boarding school? I think the language was intentional, so I can't fault it. The best part though is the twist. And let me tell you, this one will make you do a double-take. Truly masterful, Variant is not one you'll want to miss!



ARC graciously provided by Around the World Tours

Variant by Robison Wells review

XVI by Julia Karr

Sixteen isn't so sweet anymore. Nina is terrified of turning sixteen because of what it means to society. She'll be branded with an XVI tattoo proclaiming her status as a sex-teen. While she'll be allowed to have her GPS removed so the government can't watch her every step, Nina is truly concerned that her best friend is obsessed with following what all the media says is the best way to act, dress & behave. Nina's mom had always been a little on the cautious side, encouraging Nina & her sister Dee to explore other alternatives to the government-supplied media.

When her mother is brutally murdered, Nina is entrusted with a very heavy secret. All that was once true in her world is now just an elaborate lie to help uncover the real truth behind the government-sponsored Female Liaison Specialist service. It is compulsory for lower-tier girls (like Nina & her friend) to apply to this program; but it is far from what it seems. With the help of several friends, including the dashingly handsome Sal, Nina discovers that, despite her mother's murder & her father's death before she was born, she has never been alone.

I absolutely loved this book! There was so much going on all the time that I couldn't put it down. The characters are very well written & have appeal for both guys & gals. Nina is such a strong person, despite her weaknesses, I really wanted her to succeed. She had such a good heart & really only wanted what was best for everyone that it was hard not to root for her. I can't imagine what I would be like if my life was turned completely on its head. She maintained her focus on protecting her little sister & fulfilling her promise to her dying mother. While some of her actions were misguided, I think it gave her a human-like quality. No one is perfect.

I also really enjoyed her friends. They were all so diverse, representing not only different ethnic groups, but also different tiers within the story. They all seemed to help put together the overall image of the setting. Let me tell you, this 2150 Chicago was so different from today that I couldn't even fathom living in a society where you are constantly bombarded with advertisements, the media controls your life, you are completely subservient to the government with absolutely no real freedoms... There was just so much to absorb.

My favorite part of this book was the writing. Julia Karr makes this book so easy to read, but you have to work to get the whole picture. She doesn't start out by telling you everything that has changed from present day to the book's setting. As the story moves forward & we learn more about our characters, we also learn more about the setting. The best example I can give you is that one of the guys plays a musical show at a club. When asked what kind of music, he responds with zydeco from New Orleans. Someone says, from where? The character explains about how New Orleans was wiped out by a series of monstrous hurricanes several decades earlier. Those kinds of nuggets made the book worth reading.

I will caution sensitive readers, that there is a lot of sexual discussion & innuendo (including porn) & some serious violence. Obviously if you've read my review & the blurb, you knew that this was a possibility, but I just wanted to make very clear that, in my personal opinion, this book is truly intended for older teens. I hope you enjoy it anyway.

What are your thoughts about this subject? How much is too much when it comes to sexual content in YA?

XVI by Julia Karr

The Water Wars by Cameron Stracher

Vera is extremely cautious of the water-wasting boy she sees on the road. It's not normal (or legal) to waste water in such a manner. She approaches the boy & so starts the journey of a lifetime.

Vera and her older brother Will live in what used to be the Mid-West, but is now known as the territory of Illinowa. The Great Panic, due to drastically reducing water supplies, tore the United States & other countries to shreds. Now everyone scrambles to save up ration cards in order to obtain potable water from the government. Many people are sick, and some are even dying, from the lack of water & the illnesses that stem from that situation.

Kai is alone on the main road outside of Vera's home when she sees him wasting water on the road. He is the son of a very important water-seeker, so he doesn't have to go to school & he has all the water he'll ever need. These two form a tredipatious friendship based in after-school snacks & dreaming of far away lands & times in abundance with water. Vera even finds herself wishing to be more than just friends with him over time.

Everything changes though when Kai's bodyguards are murdered & Kai is kidnapped. Vera & Will race off to help him, encountering pirates, fighting environmental terrorists & even rebelling against corrupt government water companies. All in the name of the main life-force on this planet.

The Water Wars was... different. I feel kind of ambivalent about the whole book. There were definitely parts I liked, mostly based in the writing style & descriptions; and there were parts, like the fantastical nature of the story, that just didn't jive with me. I felt like I kept getting glimpses of how this world should be set up, without every really getting the whole picture. All I kept picturing were desert towns instead of a nation that has been through complete and total upheaval. Part of that might have to do with the simple fact that I couldn't tell where we were in relation to today. There were definitely references to today's society & pop culture to identify eras, but no definite knowledge of how long it took the country to devolve so far.

I must say that I really enjoyed the different groups we encounter in this book. The pirates were my favorite because they weren't at all on my radar of expectations. The environmental terrorists were fascinating to delve into simply because the leader was honest that their work isn't always what's best for the planet. I thought that made a real statement about their self-awareness.

Overall the characters were self-containing and quite predictable. I found that reassuring given the unsure footing we were on in relation to the rest of the book. A quirky, unique look at a future society devoid the most precious resource we have, The Water Wars is one to at least give a fair shake.

If you've read it, what did you think?

The Water Wars by Cameron Stracher

Wither by Lauren DeStefano

Rhine has been taken by the Gatherers. These roving bands of thieves steal their world's most valuable resource: young girls. In a world where men die at 25 and women die at 20, the Gatherers are making a profit off stealing young girls & selling them into prostitution, workhouses, or (potentially one of the worst) into a loveless marriage where they're forced to give birth to the next generation. The latter is what has happened to Rhine & while she is constantly worried about her twin brother & what he's doing, she's determined to get back to him.

Rhine, Jenna, & Cecily were all married to a semi-famous architect named Linden Ashby. While they each have their own room & their own attendant, they are confined to the wife floor of an expansive mansion. Rhine manages to quickly bond with the current wife Rose, who is in the throes of death. Rose warns Rhine not to underestimate Linden's father, he's a ruthless doctor that will protect his work & his son, at any cost. After Rose's death, Rhine inherits her status as the "first wife," a more public role than that of the other wives, and sets about earning Linden's trust so she can make a break for it at the earliest moment.

But Rhine didn't expect to actually grow fond of her sister wives, being to care for her husband & she certainly never expected Gabriel.

This is an attention-grabbing first novel in a new series by a debut author! I must say that I am quite impressed with this book. It manages to be set in a future, semi-apocalyptic world where everyone is dying from an unknown virus & yet seem so currently. I feel like it draws several parallels to present-day situations where young girls are treated like products to be distributed rather than the human being that they are.

Rhine is such an amiable character. Her story really draws you in & also gives you a picture of what's happened in the world. Her memories of her parents really helped flesh out what was going on in the rest of the world while she was stuck under Linden's house arrest. The "sister wife" concept was a first for me outside of a "religious-polygamy" setting, but it fit quite well with the "we need to make lots of babies quickly to find an antidote to what's killing us" scenario. I think it really added depth to the multitude of experiences by young girls in this society.

While I felt the writing was a bit repetitive at times (as in using the same phrase to covey the same emotion/memory), overall it was very metered & perfectly timed. The word choice really made a difference as well. There's not an adequate way to really describe it without giving away certain situations, but suffice it to say that this is a book that you won't want to miss.

On a side note, I must say that this book inspired me to create a playlist to listen to. The words of each song really convey the actions taking place. Listen, enjoy, & let me know what you think!

Wither by Lauren DeStefano

Waiting on Wednesday: Matched

Waiting on Wednesday recognizes that we as bookies pine for books. This post is about what I am impatiently waiting for right now. It was started by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

I am practically salivating for the November 30th arrival of Matched by Ally Condie. This book has been on my want list forever & I am stoked to see so much enthusiasm for its debut!

Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate . . . until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black.

The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared to follow.

From Goodreads

How fabulous does that sound? It sounds a little like star-crossed lovers meeting in a dystopian world. I am so excited to see how Ally Condie makes this all play out. Hopefully my review will fall among the many fans. What are you waiting on this week?

Waiting on Wednesday: Matched

Waiting on Wednesday: Empty

Waiting on Wednesday recognizes that we as bookies pine for books. This post is about what I am impatiently waiting for right now. It was started by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Empty by Suzanne Weyn seems to promise to be one of my new favorite dystopian reads. With a landing date of October 1st, I am eagerly awaiting its arrival.

It's the near future - the very near future - and the fossil fuels are running out. No gas. No oil. Which means no driving. No heat. Supermarkets are empty. Malls have shut down. Life has just become more local than we ever knew it could be.

Nobody expected the end to come this fast. And in the small town of Spring Valley, decisions that once seemed easy are quickly becoming matters of life and death. There is hope - there has to be hope - just there are also sacrifices that need to be made, and a whole society that needs to be rethought.

Teens like Nicki, Tom, and Leila may find what they need to survive. But their lives are never going to be the same again.

From Goodreads

I think the thing that really draws me to this book is, based on the description, its plausibility. I can actually imagine this happening in our future. With gas becoming increasingly expensive, reserves running out, and the demand never ceasing, I can imagine this as a very real possibility. It truly would mean that, even with all our medical and technological advances, that we would be gradually reduced to a more remote way of life. I can't wait to pick this one up in a few weeks. What are you waiting on?

Waiting on Wednesday: Empty