Blockbuster
A boy named Seth drowns, desperate and alone in his final moments, losing his life as the pounding sea claims him. But then he wakes. He is naked, thirsty, starving. But alive. How is that possible? He remembers dying, his bones breaking, his skull dashed upon the rocks. So how is he here? And where is this place? It looks like the suburban English town where he lived as a child, before an unthinkable tragedy happened and his family moved to America. But the neighborhood around his old house is overgrown, covered in dust, and completely abandoned. What’s going on? And why is it that whenever he closes his eyes, he falls prey to vivid, agonizing memories that seem more real than the world around him? Seth begins a search for answers, hoping that he might not be alone, that this might not be the hell he fears it to be, that there might be more than just this...
The unforgiving current is no match for Seth, as he feels his life slipping away. The ocean has slammed his seventeen year old body to his death, the impact fracturing his skull, severing his spinal cord and washing away his life that lead to the moment, where his death now comes as a relief. But for Seth Wearing, his life has only just begun.
Waking up free of injuries on a vaguely familiar suburban street, Seth can't help but assume that he's woken up in hell. The broken and run down houses in the English county are a backdrop to the desolate streets, abandoned cars, dust and the stench of decay. Where is he? He certainly isn't wearing his own clothes, but rather a mass of bandages. The streets should be a wash of colour, neighbours gathering and children playing, but it's eerily quiet. No cars, no trains and not a soul in sight. Stepping inside the house, Seth now realises where he is... This is the house where he used to live. The house he lived in before his family moved to America. The house in England. But how is that possible? This is the house his mother swore she never wanted to see again after the incident that had changed their lives forever.
Seth can remember his life before he passed, the night he and friends H, Gudmund and Monica stole the baby Jesus from a nativity scene on a neighbours front lawn, that he should have been in his final year of high school, and that he had planned to escape to college and leave his parents and brother Owen behind, the family that had become virtual strangers after the incident. As Seth finds himself in the dusty old house, with no food, now clothed like a homeless clown and with rusted water that could potentially be poisoning him, he releases that he can't stay without adequate supplies, and sets off to explore his new version of hell.
Clearly something isn't right when Seth can retrace his steps through the house, the dusty footprints of one way traffic from the upstairs floor. But Seth never expected to find a glossy black coffin, filled with white cushions and metallic lined bandages, torn in what looks to be an escape attempt. The coffin is powered, with tubes being fed through the interior and Seth wonders if the surrounding homes are housing the same horror. Running on empty, Seth lulls himself into a fitful and traumatic slumber, each time he dreams of his previous life, the incident and repercussions. His mother's love for Owen, while Seth is barely acknowledged, falling in love and his world cruelly torn apart by those he needed most. But if the vivid dreams don't unravel Seth's new existence, The Driver certainly will.
In the first sign of human life, a black van driving through the desolate streets. But before Seth has a chance to approach the vehicle, he's accosted by a small boy no more than twelve years old, panicked and begging Seth to run... Or he'll die at the hands of the masked man known as The Driver. Regine and Tomasz find themselves in the same situation as Seth, with no idea how they came to be. They all have different theories about what the world has become, but as unique as they all are, they've all woken up in a coffin, all have died, all three are dreaming vivid memories of their former lives and all scared to be taken by The Driver.
Why are they there, where are they and what has happened to everyone else?
If I could use one word to describe More Than This, it would be phenomenal. This was my introduction to Patrick Ness and I can't believe I've waited so long to experience his brilliance. The story is a young adult post apocalyptic, science fiction thriller that places the reader in Seth's world, and what a frightening world that is. The plot is intricate and well paced, creating a vivid landscape of desolation and isolation. Seth is a brilliant and well developed character who carries the weight of his family on his shoulders and it seems as though he may have been the only one, his mother especially having blamed Seth for what is clearly her own mistake. Through Seth's dreams, we see glimpses of his circle of friends, and the life of a teen in love, but is scared to tell the world.
I absolutely loved Tomasz, or Tommy as he is affectionately known. The small Polish immigrant holds the group of three unlikely allies together. He's experienced the hardest life of them all, but with his broken English, slightly off kilter phrasing and antidotes, he adds a lightness and comedy to the storyline, which breaks up the intensity.
More Than This is the type of book to ruin you for all others. Patrick Ness has constructed a story so masterful that both teen and young adult readers will be blown away.
More Than This
Written By Patrick Ness
Published 10 / 09 / 2013
480 Pages
Thank you to Walker Books for allowing me the privilege to read and review.
Your favorite Dwellers and Country Saga characters come together in this epic seventh book!
As President Borg Lecter threatens to annihilate the Country tribes in order to expand his glass-domed empire, Adele ventures into the belly of the beast. Her only hope of survival is the consolidation of Dwellers and Country power before it’s too late.
Former demagogue President Nailin is eliminated, yet civil unrest infects every alliance. To save Adele, President Tristan faces his greatest challenge yet: unifying unfriendly Dwellers in the Tri-Realms to raise an army against Lecter. Meanwhile, Dazz must convince the Ice Country leaders to march with Siena and the Tri-Tribes on the gates of the Glass City.
The world sits on the edge of a knife. Will Adele, Tristan, Dazz, and Siena defeat Lecter and his army of killers before the Glassies wipe them off the face of the Earth?
Adele and Tristan, against all odds, have breached the surface and are now trapped in a world where the sky bleeds, the sun burns and the natives have taken them captive, accusing the duo of being Glassies. Siena, Skye and Wilde believe their two captives are indirectly responsible for murdering the people of Fire Country, declaring war in the newly established Tri Tribes. But they are more alike than they would care to admit, seeking unity within their respective communities, after Tristan and Adele killed former president Nailin, Tristan's father. The Tri Tribes have a battle looming against president Lector of the Glassies, but not without the help of the future Unity Alliance, and Dazz representing the Tri Tribes.
The Unity Alliance isn't on the agenda for the representatives of Ice Country, voting for an alliance with the Glassies and President Lector, on the condition that all three thousand citizens of Ice Country are to move to the New City, within the Dome. Dazz is on alert, the forced escort soldiers making the community on the move, uneasy. Why would the alliance send so many soldiers, when the Icers had an armed escort? As a riot within the group forms, one thing is abundantly clear, they must stand and fight against the soldiers, the Glassies and President Lector. This isn't war, it's Genocide.
Adele and Tristan have joined forces with the Tri Tribes, the only way to end Lector is to infiltrate the New City, taking the fight to the Glassies. Having spent her life living within the Moon Realm underground, Adele is their only hope, posing as a fallen soldier and aiding access to the elusive domed city. In three days, the group plans to attack, but Tristan didn't count on the unrest between the underground Realms, to which now he is president, as Roc and Tawni bring word from below. Tristan has three days to unite the Tri Realms and stop the civil unrest between the generals and the rebels, including Adele's mother General Rose. His mission, to convince the soldiers from the Tri Realms to accompany him to the surface, to fight alongside the Tri Tribes. With an overwhelming show of solidarity, Tristan's final plea for unity, may just have worked. The former, now deceased President Nailin, had been hiding crucial information from the leaders of the Sun Realm, but will it aid or hinder the war effort?
As the war begins to rage around the dome, it has become clear that Lector wants to purge the Natives from the earth. The Tri Tribes are amassing a unity of their own, joined by the Riders of Storm Country, the Soakers of Water Country and ten thousand Realm troops behind them.
Will unity become a reality between the inhabitants of the ravaged earth?
The Earth Dwellers is a culmination of both The Dwellers and Country Saga series, resulting in a mind blowing conclusion as two merge into one. The battle is inevitable. The atrocities of both former President Nailin and King Goff pale in compassion to that of Borg Lector, President of the New City, the Earth Dwellers within the dome. The Natives and Tri Realms need to unite to stop a common enemy from Genocide, but can humanity prevail?
Told from multiple points of view, from the feisty Adele of the Moon Realm, the red hot Siena from Fire Country, with chapters From Dazz (Ice Country) and Tristan (The Sun Realm). It was brilliant! Not only does our favourite prickler Perry makes an appearance, but the collision of world's is often hilarious at times, Siena teaching Roc 'Desert Language' my personal favourite. Yes, it was that scorchin' funny.
But The Earth Dwellers, although not intentionally, carries an crucial message about being accepting of one another, without bias, bigotry, sexism or racial vilification... And I absolutely adored it and are sad to say goodbye to the characters I've grown to love.
See where it all begun with The Moon Dwellers and Fire Country
To celebrate the release of The Earth Dwellers by David Estes, the fourth book in both The Dwellers series and Country Saga, David is giving away UNLIMITED free eCopies of Fire Country, book one in the post apocalyptic, dystopian, Country Saga. A little over a year ago, David published his first young adult dystopian series, The Dwellers, and it has changed his life forever. Since then, he’s gone from struggling Indie author to fulltime writer, he’s watched in amazement as his Goodreads fan group has swelled from 300 members to over 1,600, and growing. He's been featured on Buzzfeed, as one of the '15 Book Series To Read If You Enjoyed The Hunger Games', and has just signed on to Andrea Hurst and Associates literary agency. Andrea will we working with David to expand both the Dwellers and Country Saga, taking David's career to a whole new level.
So before the two series collide in The Earth Dwellers, grab the coupon code below and download your eCopy of Fire Country from Smashwords. Share the code with your family, friends and literary inclined pets. The only thing David asks for in return is that if you enjoy the read and continue on with the series, to please leave a positive review on Amazon.com, Goodreads and blogs for each of his books that you read.
Simply use the coupon code: WM49N and download your FREE eCopy.
Expiration Date: September 15, 2013
Now down to business. There may be some of you who have only read the three books in the Country Saga or only the three books in the Dwellers Saga, and are now thinking you’ll read The Earth Dwellers, which is supposedly the 4th book in BOTH the Country Saga and the Dwellers Saga. Well, that’s awesome! However, I must highly recommend that before reading The Earth Dwellers that you read the three books in BOTH series. Trust me, doing so will greatly enhance your experience, as The Earth Dwellers will be taking significant characters from both series and crashing them together (yes, like a water country wave) into an action-packed tale of struggle and loss and hope and friendship… And maybe
a little love, too.
The Country Saga
The Dwellers Series
The Moon Dwellers The Star Dwellers The Sun Dwellers
David Estes was born in El Paso, Texas but moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania when he was very young. He grew up in Pittsburgh and then went to Penn State for college. Eventually he moved to Sydney, Australia where he met his wife and soul mate, Adele, who he’s now been happily married to for more than two years.
A reader all his life, David began writing novels for the children's and YA markets in 2010, and has completed 13 novels, 11 of which have been published. In June of 2012, David became a fulltime writer and is now travelling the world with his wife while he writes books, and she writes and takes photographs.
David gleans inspiration from all sorts of crazy places, like watching random people do entertaining things, dreams (which he jots copious notes about immediately after waking up), and even from thin air sometimes! Recently he’s been inspired by some of his favorite authors, like Suzanne Collins, Veronica Roth, and Maggie Stiefvater.
David’s a writer with OCD, a love of dancing and singing (but only when no one is looking or listening), a mad-skilled ping-pong player, an obsessive Goodreads group member, and prefers writing at the swimming pool to writing at a table. He loves responding to e-mails, Facebook messages, Tweets, blog comments, and Goodreads comments from his readers, all of whom he considers to be his friends.
Where you can find David Estes hanging out:
Blog/website
Facebook page
Goodreads author page
Other Young Adult Books by David Estes:
The Evolution Trilogy: Angel Evolution Demon Evolution Archangel Evolution
Children’s Books by David Estes:
The Nikki Powergloves Adventures: Nikki Powergloves- A Hero is Born Nikki Powergloves and the Power Council Nikki Powergloves and the Power Trappers Nikki Powergloves and the Great Adventure Nikki Powergloves vs. the Power Outlaws (Coming soon!)
The 5th Wave (The Fifth Wave: Book One)
Written By Rick YanceyPost Apocalyptic, Science Fiction
After the first wave, only darkness remains. After the second, only the lucky escape. And after the third, only the unlucky survive. After the fourth wave, only one rule applies: Trust no one.Now, it’s the dawn of the fifth wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth’s last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie’s only hope for rescuing her brother, or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: Between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up.
If you only read one book this year, this is the one. It's phenomenal.
Scientists and conspiracy theorists have always speculated that they had arrived... And all it took was ten days. Ten days before they unleashed the first wave, blasting the planet into darkness. Some assumed they came bringing peace on earth, others believed they were coming to save us from ourselves. But they weren't. They were coming to kill us, pit us against one another, to take our planet and purge us from existence.
When the second wave hit, it was designed to cleanse the earth. Tsunamis devastated coastal town and cities. But the world survived.
The third wave was created to decimate millions of survivors. A virus spread from human to human. Only the strong will survive, and the Sullivan's are survivors.
Cassie, short for Cassiopeia is sixteen. Before the others arrived, she was your regular teenage girl. She attended school, she especially enjoyed seeing Ben Parish strut through the halls. She isn't the same girl anymore. Now she's the teen who camps alone, in a dense forest with a rifle and a teddy bear, waiting for them to discover her... The fourth wave, the silencers. They look human, you don't know that you've been discovered until the split second before you're blown to pieces, so when Cassie is wounded on a desolate highway, she has two choices. Stay and bleed to death, or run and be gunned down.
Evan, the quiet farm boy with the soft hands nurses Cassie back to health. He's all alone, with no family to speak of. Cassie fascinates him, and will do anything to protect her. So when she sets off to find Sam, her little brother on a suicide mission, Evan is right behind her. The soldiers have been collecting children and taking them to camp Haven, with the promise that they are safe and their families will be joining them soon.
Something isn't right, the visitors aren't claiming earth just yet, they are allowing mass camps where the remaining humans are amassing, where they have electricity and security. Don't become complacent, we are losing our humanity, losing our planet and a war against a faceless enemy... The 5th Wave is coming.
My Thoughts
The 5th Wave is incredible. An science fiction, apocalyptic story about hope, survival, love and not going down without a fight. Seen through the eyes of female protagonist Cassie, then chapters as seen from Evan, Zombie (a newly recruited soldier) and Sam, Cassie's little brother. Cassie is a brilliant character, she believes she may very well be the last survivor. She carries around Sam's teddy bear as a promise and writes a journal to keep herself sane. She's tough, she's a survivor.
The story is horrific in places and will keep you guessing throughout. It's intelligent, emotional and exhilarating. It's a thriller of epic proportions. I was on the verge of self destruction once I reached slight cliffhanger masquerading as an ending.
I would beg, borrow and steal for a copy of the second book in this brilliant trilogy. I'm so thankful I look a chance on a apocalyptic, science fiction, survivalist novel about aliens, it's truly, hands down, the best book I've read thus far... Ever.
The highly anticipated sequel follows District 12 victors Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) as they embark on a tour of Panem, celebrating their survival in the titular death match. But the pair's defiance during the games didn't go unnoticed, by both the capricious Capitol heads and their fellow countrymen looking for a symbol of hope.
The unrest is palpable from the opening moments of the teaser, as Katniss and Peeta are ushered to the stage by mentor Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks) during a stop in District 11 — fallen tribute Rue's district.
As a riot breaks out, the scene cuts to President Snow (Donald Sutherland), consulting with new Head Gamemaker Plutarch Heavensbee (Philip Seymour Hoffman).
At home in District 12, Gale (Hemsworth) echoes the sentiment to Katniss: "People are looking to you, Katniss. You've given them an opportunity, they just have to be brave enough to take it." Gale attempts to show his own mettle, as he faces a whipping for selling illegal game, but Katniss intervenes. She's unrelenting as a Peacekeeper pulls a gun on her. "Go ahead," she says, channeling some sort of dystopian Dirty Harry.
Courtesy of MTV.com
"She's not who they think she is," Snow says of Katniss. "She just wants to save her skin, simple as that. She has become a beacon of hope for them. She has to be eliminated."
"I agree she should die," Heavensbee says. "But in the right way at the right time. Katniss Everdeen is a symbol. You don't have to destroy her, just her image. Show her that she is one of us now. Let them rally behind that. They're going to hate her so much they might just kill her for you."
At home in District 12, Gale (Hemsworth) echoes the sentiment to Katniss: "People are looking to you, Katniss. You've given them an opportunity, they just have to be brave enough to take it." Gale attempts to show his own mettle, as he faces a whipping for selling illegal game, but Katniss intervenes. She's unrelenting as a Peacekeeper pulls a gun on her. "Go ahead," she says, channeling some sort of dystopian Dirty Harry.
As the clip draws to a close, we're returned to President Snow's residence for a final, ominous warning: "Her entire species must be eradicated," he tells Heavensbee.
"Her species, sir?" Heavensbee responds.
"The other victors," Snow explains. "Because of her, they all pose a threat. Because of her, they all think they're invincible."
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire hits theaters November 22, 2013.
Courtesy of MTV.com
Shatter Me Book Two
Written By Tahereh Mafi
Dystopian, Supernatural, Romance
Published February 5th 2013
465 Pages
Add to Goodreads
★★★★★
Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick
It's almost
Time for war.
Juliette has escaped to Omega Point. It is a place for people like her - people with gifts - and it is also the headquarters of the rebel resistance.
She's finally free from The Reestablishment, free from their plan to use her as a weapon, and free to love Adam. But Juliette will never be free from her lethal touch.
Or from Warner, who wants Juliette more than she ever thought possible.
In this exhilarating sequel to Shatter Me, Juliette has to make life - changing decisions between what she wants and what she thinks is right. Decisions that might involve choosing between her heart - and Adam's life.
Juliette's touch is lethal. She has never felt loved, wanted or desired, until she met Adam. The former rebellious soldier of Warner's army division. Warner, the boy who has breathed and studied Juliette for years. He want's revenge, he wants Juliette.
The story begins where Shatter Me, the first novel in the series, left readers. Juliette and Adam are now members of the resistance at Omega Point. Preparing for an assault from the Reestablishment army and The Supreme Commander's ruling hand, Juliette is trying to master her curse gift... With little success. She feels as though she is still being held against her will. She now barely sees Adam. Adam is undergoing testing in the hope to understand his abilities, his immunity to Juliette's lethal touch could only mean that he too is cursed blessed. Right?
With the army increasing manpower and patrols, the movement know that time us running out, and quickly. Warner lives for Juliette, the most exquisite, yet deadly creature he's ever met. He must have her. Compound citizens are being killed for protesting and there is steadily growing unrest towards the reestablishment. But when four gifted team members are taken hostage. It's now or never. Juliette is ready, but with two men that would give their lives for her, she's conflicted. Two polar opposites, one a freedom fighter, the other thrives on the emotionless, oppressive regime. Both can touch her it shouldn't be possible it is possible. Revelations will blow their world apart.
I am officially in love with Tahereh Mafi. Tahereh isn't a writer, she's a storyteller, she's a poet, she creates entire worlds where the reader can live, she's brilliant. I've never come across an inner monologue even close to that of the character of Juliette. It's purely poetic. Taherah can describe one emotion with paragraphs of random descriptions, shrieking tea kettles, being able to capture minutes ticking by in your pocket, I am scared, I am scared, I am scared, I am strong. It's quirky and poetic and captures Juliette with an amazing inner monologue. That originality wont sit well with everyone, but the strike through text, the short clipped lines and poetic descriptions are incredible. I've never read anything remotely similar. There are no awkward pauses and it's written with such beauty. I read the entire book in one sitting, I devoured it and couldn't put it down.
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