The Chaperone by M. Hendrix

The Chaperone by M. Hendrix was published by Sourcebooks Fire on June 6, 2023.

Publisher's summary:

"Hendrix's dystopian society is somewhat of a Handmaid's Tale for YA, and offers a dark world with a glimmer of hope."— Booklist, STARRED review

Like every young woman in New America, Stella knows the rules:

Deflect attention.

Abstain from sin.

Navigate the world with care.

Give obedience.

Embrace purity.

Respect your chaperone.

Girls in New America must have a chaperone with them at all times.  Because of this, Stella is never alone.  She can't go out by herself or learn about the world.  She can't even spend time with boys except at formal Visitations.  Still, Stella feels lucky that her chaperone, Sister Helen, is like a friend to her.

And then the unthinkable happens.  Sister Helen dies suddenly, and Stella feels lost.  Especially when she's assigned a new chaperone just days later.

Sister Laura is... different.  She has radical ideas about what Stella should be doing.  She leaves Stella alone in public and even knows how to get into the "Hush Hush" parties where all kinds of forbidden things happen.  As Stella spends more time with Sister Laura, she begins to question everything she's been taught.  What if the Constables' rules don't actually protect girls?  What if they were never meant to keep them safe?

I am quite familiar with The Handmaid's Tale story even though I've never read the book.  I tried the Kindle sample of the book in 2022, but I did not care for the writing style.  It was too disjointed for me.  Instead, I watched the Hulu television series, which I enjoyed, even though the show is crazy.

As I began reading The Chaperone, I saw the obvious similarities to The Handmaid's Tale.  While I found the early part of the story to be interesting, I also felt like I was reading a story that I already knew.

Stella goes to one of the "Hush Hush" parties.  It's quickly apparent to the reader that the parties are for sex only, and mainly so that the boys can rape the girls.  Stella is a bit slow to figure it out, which I found annoying.  She comes very close to being raped.

After that, Stella decides that she wants out, and this was where the story finally became compelling for me.  I was quite engaged from that point on.

Overall, this book is very good to excellent.  It is set up for a sequel, so hopefully another book will be written.

The Great Library Series by Rachel Caine

The Great Library series was written by Rachel Caine.  The series consists of five books.

1.  Ink and Bone, 2015
2.  Paper and Fire, 2016
3.  Ash and Quill, 2017
4.  Smoke and Iron, 2018
5.  Sword and Pen, 2019

This is the publisher's summary of the first book.

In this exhilarating series, New York Times bestselling author Rachel Caine rewrites history, creating a dangerous world where the Great Library of Alexandria has survived the test of time.…

Ruthless and supremely powerful, the Great Library is now a presence in every major city, governing the flow of knowledge to the masses. Alchemy allows the Library to deliver the content of the greatest works of history instantly—but the personal ownership of books is expressly forbidden.

Jess Brightwell believes in the value of the Library, but the majority of his knowledge comes from illegal books obtained by his family. Jess has been sent to be his family’s spy, but his loyalties are tested in the final months of his training to enter the Library’s service.

When his friend inadvertently commits heresy by creating a device that could change the world, Jess discovers that those who control the Great Library believe knowledge is more valuable than any human life—and soon both heretics and books will burn....

The first four books are mostly very good to excellent.  I found that the first half of the first book drags a bit until the middle part of the book.  The book is very interesting from the middle to the ending.  The second book is quite exciting.

The third book also drags during the first half and then gets good.  The fourth book is excellent and interesting all the way through.

I did not like the fifth book and skimmed the entire book.  I wish that the author had ended the series with four books.  Almost all reviews for the fifth book are extremely positive, but I found the fifth book to be terribly boring.  The way the fourth book ends spoils having much of any story come after it.  The author should have wrapped up the story in the fourth book.

I went hunting through reviews to try to see if even one person agreed with me about the fifth book.  I couldn't understand how I appeared to be the only person who found it boring.  The reviews of the fifth book are practically giddy.

Finally, I found some readers who saw what I did.

PlusFour:  "[B]y the time we got this final book it was like nobody involved cared anymore: the plot was threadbare, the obvious attempts to stretch already overstretched material resulted in boring prose and so much unnecessary detail."

Chelsea:  "But it went too far in that this should have been a four-book series, and this one just feels unnecessary. Yes, it is the culmination of the others, but in feel it's just...blah."

Karin:  "A skimmer. I skipped from page 95 to 275 and didn’t feel lost at all."

Okay.  It's good to know that I'm not alone, but I remain perplexed that most people think the fifth book is spectacular.

The Great Library series features a gay couple.  Their relationship is quite well developed, believable, and central to the story arc of the entire series.  These two characters are my favorite characters in the series.  The relationship is quite well done, and the series would not be what it is without these characters.

The other characters in this series are from multiple racial and ethnic groups.  Like the gay couple, the other characters really shine through their differences.  The author created a memorable group of characters, and I loved reading about their journey.

I highly recommend this series for the characters in it.  They are excellent.

Neal Shusterman's Unwind Dystology

I wrote about the first book in the Unwind Dystology, Unwind, nearly three years ago. 

The Unwind Dystology consists of four books and one short story.

1.  Unwind, 2007
2.  UnWholly, 2012
3.  UnSouled, 2013
4.  UnDivided, 2014

UnStrung is a short story published in 2012.  It is meant to be read between volumes 1 and 2.  UnStrung contains events that are important to understanding parts of the later books.  Novellas typically can be skipped and are not necessary to understanding the main books in a series, but UnStrung is very important to this series.

Like with most dystopian series, I cannot give much information beyond what happens in the first book.  Most additional information would spoil too much.

The Unwind Dystology is set in the future United States.  Abortion has been declared illegal, and in exchange, parents can have their children unwound between the ages of 13 and 17.  The teenagers who are unwound are no longer wanted by their parents.  Many parents sign away teenagers that get into trouble or don't make good enough of grades.

Teenagers who are unwound basically become unwilling organ donors.  Their bodies are separated, and 100% of their parts are given to others.  People believe that being unwound does not kill the person, that the person will live on in a divided state.

Some families choose to tithe their children.  Children who are tithes know from birth that they will be unwound at the age of 13.  Tithes and their families see this as a deeply religious experience and are content knowing that the unwound teenager will help others live a better life.

Cults form around the recipients of certain unwound teenagers.  For instance, all of the people who received unwound parts from a boy named Tyler create a cult and live together.  They believe that Tyler is with them in spirit.

This is all very twisted, but it gets worse.  Proactive Citizenry has created a young man, Cam, who was created from 100 unwinds.  Cam has the flesh of all races, stitched together across his body.  His hair is a rainbow of colors and textures, also representing all races.  Many people are disgusted by Cam's existence.  Cam is depicted on the cover of the second book, UnWholly.

Some unwinds go AWOL before they are unwound.  Some of them are the protagonists, Conner, Lev, and Risa.  They fight to stay alive as they search for a way to convince society that unwinding is wrong.

These books are dystopian horror novels.  They are darkly disturbing.  They also get the reader to think.  In fact, these books are so deeply thought-provoking, they may very well be considered great literature years from now.  As we know, great literature is often controversial, and these books are no less than that. 

Shusterman has interspersed real articles from the internet through his books.  The reader gets to read about events that have actually happened that could be precursors to the events of these books. 

These books aren't for everyone.  Some readers may find the content to be too disturbing.  Furthermore, people who are strong pro-life or strong pro-choice likely will not be able to enjoy these books.  The author purposefully uses verbiage from both sides of the issue, and language from both sides is used to support both sides of the unwind issue.  It's quite clever.

I found the first book to be quite unsettling, but at the same time, I found the story to be intensely compelling.  I wanted to see what would happen to the protagonists, despite my horror about the premise.  As I continued reading the books, I became somewhat desensitized and accepted the bizarre premise of this dystopian universe.

If you like young adult dystopian fiction, consider giving these books a try.  Unlike some other authors, Shusterman ends this series strongly.  The last book, UnDivided, may in fact be the best book.  I have read a number of dystopian series, and the authors tend to get lazy towards the end or can't figure out how to end their series, resulting in abysmal final books.  Shusterman knows how to do it right.

The message in these books is powerful.  I couldn't stop thinking about the books after I finished the last one.  The story is haunting and stays with the reader long after the last page is turned.

Parallel Trilogy by Christine Kersey

The Parallel Trilogy consists of the following books.

1.  Gone, 2013
2.  Imprisoned, 2013
3.  Hunted, 2014

In the Parallel Trilogy, Morgan Campbell is furious when her mother takes away her cell phone.  Morgan runs away from home and stays in a cabin in the woods overnight.  The next morning when Morgan returns home, she discovers that another family lives in her house.  Her family has vanished!  Soon Morgan realizes that she has somehow stepped into a parallel universe.

In this strange world, it is illegal for people to be overweight.  People are sent to Federally Assisted Thinning centers, known as F.A.T. centers, in order to force them to lose weight.  Some people are sent to the centers because someone turned them in.

Morgan quickly makes a few enemies and gets sent to a F.A.T. center.  The center is little more than a prison camp, where people are tortured.  Morgan must find a away to escape the F.A.T. center and get back to her own world.

In the beginning of the first book, many readers will have trouble liking Morgan.  She is very immature and makes horrible decisions.  In short, Morgan is the cause of all of her problems.  As the story continues, Morgan grows as a character, and she is not the same person at the end of the third book.  By the end of the trilogy, I had fallen in love with both Morgan and Billy.

A fourth book has also been written, After, published in 2014.  In this book, we get to see what happens to Morgan and Billy after the conclusion of the Parallel Trilogy.

I didn't refresh my memory before beginning After.  Around ten months had passed between when I finished the Parallel Trilogy and when I began reading After.  It was like no time had passed, and I was able to remember everything about Morgan and Billy quite clearly.  These stories are memorable, and I recommend them to people who enjoy young adult novels.

Another story is to be released in late 2014, The Other Morgan.  I look forward to meeting the Morgan from the parallel world who switched places with our Morgan.

Allegiant by Veronica Roth

This review does not spoil the ending, unlike many of the reviews that have been written for this book.

I finished reading Allegiant by Veronica Roth. Allegiant is the third and final book in the Divergent trilogy.  I knew from the bad reviews that I would likely be disappointed.  The entire book was devoid of the magic of the first book. It was empty and actually quite boring for long stretches. 

While I did not like the ending, I believe I would have reacted to it better if the book had been written well.  The book was mostly boring.  During the second book, we had a build up about what exactly was beyond the fence.  We went beyond the fence in the third book, and you know what?  It wasn't that interesting.

Roth described the setting in Chicago so well in the first book.  Her descriptions were lacking in the third book.  I couldn't visualize anything well.  The area beyond the fence was a big "nothing."

The point of view alternates between Tris and Tobias, when the first two books were all Tris.  This could have worked well, but Tobias and Tris were written exactly the same, creating confusion.

Many people said that they cried at the ending.  I had no reaction whatsoever.  I believe my lack of reaction was due to me never connecting with the book.  The second book, Insurgent, set up readers for a thrilling reveal for when Tris journeys outside the fence.   The outside of the fence is not much different from the inside of the fence, so I was a bit bored from the beginning of the book.  I can think of at least one way that the journey outside the fence would have been made more interesting.  

The book has a lot of gaping plot holes.  When I thoroughly enjoy a book, I tend to ignore the plot holes.  This book was not written well, and the plot holes were very obvious.  The conflict involves people who are genetically pure and others who are genetically defective. 

The book mentions multiple times how small their world is and how the Chicago area is but a tiny part of the entire country.  Tris, Tobias, and the others have only been in Chicago, and they see maps of the United States.  They feel like they are insignificant.  Since the book emphasizes how small their world is, I have trouble understanding how solving the conflict in their small area solves the problem for the entire country.  The government could send people in at any time to further its agenda.

When I read the reviews for the first book in the trilogy, Divergent, the critical reviews complained that the world makes no sense.  I didn't have a problem with the world in the first book, because it is so magical and extraordinary.  Guess what?  Those people were right.  The world makes no sense whatsoever, and Roth's attempts in explaining it in this book are woefully insufficient.

Going back to the genetically defective and genetically pure people, Roth uses abbreviations for both liberally throughout the text:  "GD" and "GP."  Each time I saw an abbreviation, I had to stop reading to look at the letters and figure out which was which.  I really think using "defective" and "pure" would have been much easier on the reader.  Besides, I kept wanting to read "GD" as a curse word which didn't help matters any.

If you are planning to read this book, do not read any reviews anywhere, because readers are so enraged about the ending that they are spoiling it in their reviews, often in the first sentence without warning.  I saw one review on Amazon where the reviewer titled their review with the spoiler for the book's ending.  Even reading the titles of reviews is dangerous.

I don't know whether people will find this blog post and make comments, but if you are planning to read this book, I caution you against reading any comments that are posted.  Readers are so very upset that they are spoiling the book everywhere.  I have decided that I will not remove any comments that get posted that spoil the ending, so you have been forewarned.

Lots of people have been spoiled on Facebook on Veronica Roth's page and everywhere else on the internet. People have posted on their Facebook accounts that they are reading the book, and others are so angry about the book that they respond with comments spoiling the ending. I've seen many people upset that the ending was spoiled for them. 

I'm not sure when I've ever seen this much anger over a book that I have read.  In my case, I am not angry or upset; I simply did not find the book to be a worthy conclusion to the Divergent trilogy.

Dystopian Novels: Life As We Knew It, Quarantine, and Rage Within

Life As We Knew It Series - Susan Beth Pfeffer

1.  Life As We Knew It, 2006
2.  The Dead and the Gone, 2008
3.  This World We Live In, 2010
4.  The Shade of the Moon, 2013

In Life As We Knew It, an asteroid hits the moon, throwing it into a new orbit, causing widespread tsunamis and volcanic eruptions.  Most of the world's population dies, and life is grim for the survivors.  These books are very good, but the books are flawed.

In the first book, everyone looks forward to the asteroid hitting the moon, and absolutely no one has any idea that anything could go wrong.  The book is set in 2006, and think of how the media analyze everything.  People would have been well aware of the danger. 

The author throws in some really unnecessary political bashing that pulled me right out of the book and into reality.  Fiction should never do that.

The electricity goes off for days, then comes back on for an hour or so.  Most everyone is dead, so who is turning the electricity back on?  And why would they, since no one is paying the bills?  And a bunch of other stuff is not logical.  

The first book shows how the situation grows gradually worse, which makes for fascinating reading. Even though some aspects of the story make little sense, I enjoyed these books.

Quarantine - Lex Thomas

1.  The Loners, 2012
2.  The Saints, 2013

These books are very similar to the Gone series by Michael Grant, so if you've ever read those books, you have a good idea what to expect with these.  The teenagers are trapped inside their school, infected with a virus that is lethal to everyone over the age of 18.  The government has sealed off all exits to the school and periodically drops supplies down into the school.  Gangs form, and the students fight to the death for the supplies.  At least one more book will be published.

Dark Inside Series - Jeyn Roberts

1.  Dark Inside, 2011
2.  Rage Within, 2012

A huge earthquake strikes, unleashing an ancient evil that takes over the minds of at least half the human population.  The Baggers are consumed by hatred, hunting down the remains of the normal human population.  The Baggers are not zombies.  They look just like everyone else, except for the black veins in their eyes.  They are controlled by the ancient evil, which desires to rebuild the world according its own plan.

These books are scary and suspenseful in the way of old movies from the early part of the 20th century.  I got shivers.  I had to cover the lower half of many pages as I read, anticipating when something would come at them from the shadows!  I love these books, which are very good, chilling dystopian fiction.  There should be at least one more book coming in this set.

Dystopian Novels: Uglies, Ashes, and Birthmarked

The Uglies - Scott Westerfield

1.  Uglies, 2005
2.  Pretties, 2011
3.  Specials, 2011

In this series, society operates on all young people when they turn 16.  They are made "pretty," and their minds are altered so that all they want to do is think about "happy-making" and being "bubbly."

The books tell the story of one young woman's fight against what society has forced on her.  Some readers don't care for these books because the characters act like airheads much of the time.  That's the point, which those readers missed completely.  Society has made them into airheads, and then they fight against it.  I enjoyed these books.

Westerfield wrote a fourth book, Extras, which I have opted not to read since it features different characters.

The Ashes Trilogy - Ilsa J. Bick

1.  Ashes, 2012
2.  Shadows, 2012

This is another zombie apocalypse trilogy.  In these books, an electromagnetic pulse wipes out all electronics and kills billions of people.  Of the people not killed, many become zombies and others attain heightened senses.

I enjoyed the books, but they are heavy into extremely graphic gore and have excessively long fight scenes.  I found myself beginning to skim the fight scenes, as I was just not that interested.  If you enjoy really gross content, these books are for you.  I will be reading the third book when it is released because I want to know what happens.

The Birthmarked Trilogy - Caragh M. O'Brien

1.  Birthmarked, 2010
2.  Prized, 2011
3.  Promised, 2012

While I enjoyed the Birthmarked Trilogy for the most part, I found a lot wrong with the books.  The main theme has to do with reproductive rights.  Women who live outside the city's walls have to give their children up for adoption by families who live inside the city.  The protagonist, Gaia, is a midwife.

In the first book, Gaia is all about saving babies' lives.  In the second book, she is all about killing the unborn.  In the third book, some truly horrific things happen to Gaia, and I'm not sure what the point is.  At the end of the third book, I just felt depressed.  I also didn't really care by that point.  I felt like I had been through a traumatic experience and like I would have been better off not reading the books.

Dystopian Novels: Haddix, Darkwoods, and Born

I have come to love dystopian fiction.  In these books set in the near or distant future, just about everything goes wrong.  This means that the characters don't have cell phones, computers, automobiles, or most modern conveniences.  In the books where the characters do have some conveniences, society is so restrictive that the conveniences cannot be used for their intended purposes.  In short, these books are like reading the vintage series fiction that I love so much.

This is the first of several posts that contain brief reviews of dystopian fiction that I have not previously reviewed in this blog.

The Missing Series - Margaret Peterson Haddix

1.  Found, 2008
2.  Sent, 2009
3.  Sabotaged, 2010
4.  Torn, 2011
5.  Caught, 2012

This series is set in the 21st century, circa 2008 or so.  36 adopted children learn that they were abducted out of the past and taken to the future as part of a for-profit adoption scheme run by time travelers.  Time got messed up, and they had to be adopted into the late 20th century instead of in the distant future.  Now, the time travelers have returned from the future in order to take the children back to their own places in past history in order to set time straight.  The children are not happy, since they don't want to leave their 21st century lives.  This is a very abbreviated version of the plot.

Since the plot involves time travel, much it makes little sense, because the characters go back and forth in time and really make a mess of things.  The reader has to engage in much suspension of belief, accepting that certain things are possible in order to enjoy the stories.  Time travel never is logical.

The reader learns a lot of history in these books.  I found the books to be very interesting and very educational.  I do have a word of caution for people who have adopted children.  Read the first book before giving it to an adopted child.  These books have content that could be upsetting to adopted children.

Additional books will be published in this series.

The Shadow Children - Margaret Peterson Haddix

1.  Among the Hidden, 1998
2.  Among the Imposters, 2001
3.  Among the Betrayed, 2002
4.  Among the Barons, 2003
5.  Among the Brave, 2004
6.  Among the Enemy, 2005
7.  Among the Free, 2006

This series takes place in a society in which families are permitted to have no more than two children.  Many families have had a third child, and the third children are the shadow children, forced to live in hiding inside their homes, never able to come out into the world.  The third children sometimes get discovered and have to go on the run.  These books tell the story of the shadow children and their struggle for survival.  I enjoyed reading these books.

The Darkwoods Trilogy - J. A. Redmerski

1.  The Mayfair Moon, 2012
2.  Kindred, 2012
3.  The Ballad of Aramei, 2012

I read these books because I was a bit desperate.  These books were clearly inspired by the Twilight series, except that this series is about werewolves.  Adria falls in love with Isaac, who is a werewolf.  If you are familiar with Twilight, you know where this is heading.  Isaac will not age, and Adria worries that she will grow older than him, so... she wants to be a werewolf.  Shocking!

This trilogy has some of the same problems as Twilight, and in that respect, the author did a great job of mimicking Twilight.  Adria meets Isaac, and there is no chemistry, nothing, no reason for her to fall for him.  Yet she does.  I never was able to feel what Adria feels for Isaac, just as I was never able to understand Bella's inexplicable attraction to Edward.  In that respect, Redmerski copied Twilight beautifully.  These books are in some ways better than Twilight, especially since they don't have a grown man who is basically betrothed to a baby.  You know, that creepy imprinting thing from Twilight where Jacob seems almost like a child molester.  It's not in this trilogy, which is a plus.

These books are somewhat better than Twilight in the overall premise, but the books are poorly edited with quite a few typos. I found them enjoyable, although not favorites.

The Born Trilogy - Tara Brown
 
1.  Born, 2012
2.  Born to Fight, 2013
3.  Reborn, 2013

This trilogy is set around 10 years in the future after a man-made virus gets out of control, infecting a large percentage of the population.  The virus causes people to lose their minds, and all they want to do is kill and eat other people. 

These books feature the most awesome young woman named Emma.  This girl is a tough, aggressive survivor.  You just have to read the books to see what I mean.  Emma is awesome, and I love her.  This trilogy tells such a great story that it could become the next big thing.  The problem is that these books are not edited very well.  The books are self-published, and the author needs to get someone other than whoever is editing them.  There are many word usage errors, misplaced commas, and grammatical errors.  One example is the use of "planes" as the word for an open grassy area when the correct word is "plains."

The author also greatly overuses pronouns to the point that the reader often has to skip ahead several pages in order to try to figure out exactly who "he" or "she" is.  When the scene contains two men and a woman, referring to both men as "he" is extremely confusing.

All that said, I greatly enjoyed this trilogy.

The Delirium Trilogy by Lauren Oliver

Earlier this year, I read the Delirium trilogy by Lauren Oliver.  This trilogy is aimed at young adult readers and consists of Delirium, Pandemonium, and Requiem.  The Delirium books are set in the future United States, in which love has been labeled a disease.  Love has been eradicated by forcing everyone to undergo a procedure as a young adult to cure them of amor deliria nervosa.

The first book tells the story of Lena and Hana in the months before their procedures.  Without getting into a lot of spoilers, Lena falls victim to amor deliria nervosa by falling in love with Alex.  In the second book, Lena becomes part of the rebel movement and grows close to Julian, but just as a result of circumstance.  In the third book, the rebel movement gains power, and Lena is in a love triangle of sorts with Alex and Julian.

The first book is quite slow with lots of what, to me, is filler.  Teenage girls might have a different view.  The second book is much more exciting than the first book, and the third book is similar to the second book.

This trilogy is quite good, but the problem is the ending of the third book.  Some say that the third book closes open-ended, but really, the third book just stops during the climax.  Lots of action is happening, then the author goes into some vague flowery prose about walls and tearing them down.  The book ends with the reader left wondering about just about everything.  It is very unsatisfying.

Most any epic story will have at least a partially open-ended conclusion, since the authors typically do not expound in great detail every event that ever happens to the characters.  But this trilogy does not successfully resolve the conflict.  For me, I just can't see how it could possibly work out.  In fact, I could see everyone getting killed one chapter after the book ends.  I suppose they could live happily ever after.  We really don't know.  The author is supposed to give us some idea of how events will unfold.  That's not my job as the reader.  I am not into writing fan fiction.  I am just a reader.

Most readers have the same opinion.  Here is a screen cap from Amazon.

 Look at the two complaints about the ending of Requiem and the rather large number of people who made similar statements.

I read this book shortly after it was released and found the reviews to be rather interesting as they came in.  A good many people complained about the ending and gave specific reasons why.  It was apparent they had read the book.  Let's just say that after a few too many complaints, a number of five-star reviews would appear, and those reviews were along the lines of "OMG.  This was the best book EVER!!!"  with no specific information given.  I have heard of fake reviews and paid reviews on Amazon, and this book appears to have a number of them.

The Delirium trilogy is excellent, but just be aware that the author apparently wants us to imagine the ending.

Reached by Ally Condie

Reached by Ally Condie was recently published.  Reached is the final installment in the Matched Trilogy.  I decided to reread Matched and Crossed before reading Reached, and I'm so glad I did.

I reviewed Matched and Crossed in this blog post, and my opinion about Crossed has changed somewhat.  I still believe that Crossed has way too much filler material, and when I reread it, I skimmed through much of it.  I no longer believe that Condie made a mistake about Xander and his secret.  I also liked Crossed better this time, but that may perhaps be because I skimmed through much of it.

Crossed has a lot of very important information, some of which the reader does not realize is important until well into the third book.  The importance of some of the information is another reason why I like Crossed better now.

Before I begin my review of Reached, I want to recap the main plot points of Matched and Crossed.

Matched is set in the Society, which controls every aspect of every person's life.  Cassia Maria Reyes is Matched with Xander Thomas Carrow.  Cassia is thrilled about her Match, since she has known Xander her entire life and is friends with him.  After the Match banquet, Cassia views Xander's microcard, which will tell her everything she needs to know about Xander.  The trouble is that another boy's face flashes on the screen, that of Ky Markham.

Cassia also knows Ky.  Cassia is drawn to Ky because of the microchip mistake and falls in love with him.  The rest of Matched deals with Cassia's feelings and her growing awareness of the flaws in the Society's ways.

Crossed tells the story of Cassia's escape from the Society and her search for Ky.  Cassia and Ky learn about the Enemy and the Rising.  The Rising is a rebellion led by the Pilot.  Nobody knows who the Pilot is.  Crossed switches between two points of view—Cassia and Ky.

In Reached, the Rising has begun, and all three of Cassia, Ky, and Xander are fully involved in some way or another.  Reached switches between the viewpoints of all three characters, with much greater success than in Crossed.  I always knew which character was the voice while reading Reached.  Each character has a unique role to play, which makes it easy to know which character is the voice.

I did not like Xander very much in either Matched or Crossed.  Xander has no personality or reason for existence in either book, so he does not matter.  I felt no connection to Xander and found him to be pointless.

This changes in Reached.  Xander has a very important role to play, and his personality comes alive.

In Reached, the arrival of the Rising wreaks havoc on the Society, just as the Rising intended.  However, the Rising's plan has unintended consequences which throws both the Society and the Rising into chaos.  The Rising scrambles to right what has gone wrong.  I dislike giving too specific of information, so I will leave it at that.

As already stated, some seemingly insignificant conversations from Crossed are discovered to be extremely important and intriguing.  Xander is finally interesting.  The ending is quite satisfying, although some of it is left open-ended.  The plot takes quite a few unexpected twists and turns.

I have read the reviews for Reached, and the reviews are quite split between people who loved Reached and others who found Reached to be boring.  The disparity is caused by how different all three books are from each other.

The first book, Matched, is more of a romance than anything else.  People who enjoy romance ended up disappointed when the trilogy took a different direction.  Crossed is an adventure story.  Some people like Crossed the best of the three books.  Reached is like neither of the preceding stories, and that is why some readers do not like it.  Reached is compelling because we see how Cassia, Ky, and Xander are changed by the Rising and we get a glimpse into what the future holds for them.

With many trilogies, and most all series books for that matter, each book has a repetitive storyline that is very similar to the previous book.  This trilogy breaks out of the mold, giving us three very different stories that are pieces of the overall story arc.

I greatly enjoyed Reached.  I found every chapter to be interesting, and to me, Reached is the best book in the trilogy.  I had no idea while reading Matched what kind of journey I would take, and that journey was fantastic.

Unwind by Neal Shusterman

Unwind by Neal Shusterman is a dystopian novel published in 2009.  This futuristic novel opens years after a civil war, known as the Heartland War, was fought over the right for a woman to have an abortion.

Synopsis taken from Amazon's product page:

In America after the Second Civil War, the Pro-Choice and Pro-Life armies came to an agreement: The Bill of Life states that human life may not be touched from the moment of conception until a child reaches the age of thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, a parent may choose to retroactively get rid of a child through a process called "unwinding." Unwinding ensures that the child's life doesn’t "technically" end by transplanting all the organs in the child's body to various recipients. Now a common and accepted practice in society, troublesome or unwanted teens are able to easily be unwound.

With breath-taking suspense, this book follows three teens who all become runaway Unwinds: Connor, a rebel whose parents have ordered his unwinding; Risa, a ward of the state who is to be unwound due to cost-cutting; and Lev, his parents' tenth child whose unwinding has been planned since birth as a religious tithing. As their paths intersect and lives hang in the balance, Shusterman examines serious moral issues in a way that will keep readers turning the pages to see if Connor, Risa, and Lev avoid meeting their untimely ends.

This is the type of novel I don't normally read, since it has an obvious political message which is subject to interpretation.  What I find interesting is how deeply offended some people are at the content.  Actually, I am not surprised that people are offended.  What surprises me is that people on both sides of the issue are absolutely convinced that the author is promoting the other viewpoint.  Some people who are very pro-choice are convinced that the author is biased towards pro-life.  At the same time, an equal number of people who are very pro-life are convinced that the author is biased towards pro-choice.  Both sides feel that the author is biased towards the other side.

So which is it?  The author wrote this book in a very clever fashion, and the book could be seen either way.  I have a suspicion, although I do not know for sure.  I am going to stop short of explaining, since no matter what I write, I would open the door to discussion of a very controversial political topic, which is not appropriate for this blog.  Suffice it to say that this book is deeply thought-provoking.  I enjoyed it for the horror and suspense, although I would not put it near the top of my list since for me, reading books is intended as escapism.  One cannot completely escape reality while reading this particular book.  It is unsettling.

The next book, UnWholly, will be released soon.

Reviews of May's New Releases

In May, I had three books to read which were either a continuation of or the conclusion to series that I have been reading.

Insurgent by Veronica Roth

This book is the second book in the Divergent trilogy. Divergent was stunning; this book less so. I enjoyed Insurgent a great deal but not nearly as much as Divergent. Divergent is full of discovery as Tris explores her new faction and develops relationships with the other initiates. During Insurgent, Tris is catapulted from one faction to another, which makes the book seem disjointed.

The book is full of fighting. The ending disappointed me because it is too eerily similar to another series. I won't state which series since that mention would be a major spoiler, but seeing the similarity makes me less interested in reading the final book. I feel like I have been there before. Despite that disappointment, I will be reading the third book in the trilogy and expect to enjoy it.

The Enchantress by Michael Scott

This was the sixth and final book in The Secrets of Nicholas Flamel series. The Nicholas Flamel series consists of six books that take place over approximately two weeks. These books are incredibly detailed and have a ton of information about every mythical creature from every ancient religion. The books are vastly informative about those myths.

By either the second or third book in the series, the reader realizes that the conclusion to the series is going to involve time travel. The time travel happens as expected, but I was left with lingering feelings of one character's path not making sense. I can't really explain this without getting into spoilers. I look forward to reading discussions about this in the Flamel website forums.

I felt that the conclusion of this book could have had more explanation. The bulk of the book involved fighting, and those scenes could have been significantly shortened.

Despite my problem with the time travel aspect and the unnecessary fighting in this book, I greatly enjoyed the entire Nicholas Flamel series and highly recommend it.

The Serpent's Shadow by Rick Riordan

The Serpent's Shadow is the third and final book in the Kane Chronicles series. Before beginning this book, I opted not to refresh my memory by reading parts of the second book. I did not enjoy the second book as much as I did the first book, and I had no desire to revisit the second book. This did cause me to have no idea who some of the characters in the third book are, and quite frankly, I did not care.

During the entire first half of this book, I felt like I had already read the same story twice in the first two books of the Kane Chronicles series. I found it a bit boring. At slightly more than halfway into the book, I began to enjoy the story a lot more. I then became more bored again towards the end since the final battle seemed to be a retread of previous final battles.

The Kane Chronicles series is not nearly as good as the Percy Jackson series, although I did enjoy it to some degree.

Matched and Crossed by Ally Condie

After reading Divergent, I decided to read Matched and Crossed by Ally Condie, since the Matched Trilogy was mentioned so often in the reviews for Divergent.

The Matched Trilogy is set in a dystopian society. The Society controls all aspects of people's lives including what they eat, what they drink, where they live, where they work, and who they marry.

From Amazon's product page:

For Cassia, nothing is left to chance--not what she will eat, the job she will have, or the man she will marry. In Matched, the Society Officials have determined optimal outcomes for all aspects of daily life, thereby removing the "burden" of choice. When Cassia's best friend is identified as her ideal marriage Match it confirms her belief that Society knows best, until she plugs in her Match microchip and a different boy’s face flashes on the screen. This improbable mistake sets Cassia on a dangerous path to the unthinkable--rebelling against the predetermined life Society has in store for her. As author Ally Condie’s unique dystopian Society takes chilling measures to maintain the status quo, Matched reminds readers that freedom of choice is precious, and not without sacrifice.--Seira Wilson

The first novel, Matched, deals with Cassia's feelings about both Xander, her Match, and Ky, the boy whose face flashes on her screen. In the Society, people whose parents commit Infractions are reclassified. Ky was reclassified as an Aberration due to an Infraction committed by his father. For that reason, Ky cannot be matched, yet his face flashed on Cassia's screen. Could Ky be Cassia's true Match?

In the second novel, Crossed, Ky has been sent away, and Cassia makes the choice to leave the Society in order to find him. Cassia learns about the Enemy, which fights the Society, and the Rising, which is a group of rebels hoping to infiltrate and bring down the Society.

The Society is set in the future, probably by 100 to 200 years. The Society decided to take away people's freedom of choice and seeks to destroy the artifacts of the previous society, such as books, poems, and art. The items that survived are traded on the black market. I found this aspect of the story to be very interesting.

The first book is dangerous. The reader constantly fears for what will happen to Cassia as she pursues a forbidden relationship with Ky and hides artifacts that she should not have. The first book is very compelling.

Most of the second book consists of Cassia trying to find Ky, and frankly, most of it is filler material. As someone on Amazon pointed out, the book is like a long camping trip. While Crossed introduces several new characters and the reader learns about them, very little plot advancement occurs.

Fairly early in the book, something is mentioned about Xander having a secret, and this bothered me so much that I flipped through around 200 pages of the book until I discovered what it was. The fact that I could skip through that many pages without anything major to the plot getting spoiled tells how much filler material the book has. By the way, knowing Xander's secret earlier in the story, as a result of spoiling myself, kept me from being annoyed the entire time. Interestingly, the secret could make Cassia's final decision on which boy to choose easier in the end. I'm not sure that the author made a good decision.

The point of view switches between Cassia and Ky during the second book, and I kept having to look back at the first page of each chapter to keep track of who was narrating, particularly after Cassia and Ky were reunited. It isn't a big problem before they reunite, but after, it is confusing. I find that books that switch back and forth between two points of view tend not to be as good as books that stick with one character. This is why I don't like Rick Riordan's Kane Chronicles as much as Percy Jackson. The changes in point of view are distracting and often confusing.

The filler in the second book should have been shortened so that we could see more of what happens with Cassia towards the end. I can't say exactly what I mean without spoiling the content, but Cassia learns what her next move will be, and the plot finally advances beyond the long camping trip. Suddenly, the book skips ahead by months. I hate it when books do that. Why do authors insist on taking the easy way out to the detriment of the reader's enjoyment?

Most of the negative reviews for Crossed state that the book is boring. I did not find it boring at all, and I enjoyed the entire book. My primary problem is that the long trek through the canyon should have been shortened and the description of what happens to Cassia towards the end of the book should have been lengthened.

While the second book has a number of flaws, I enjoyed both of these books and will be reading the third book when it is released later this year.