Review - The Uninvited by Sophie Jordan
Title: The Uninvited (Uninvited #1) Author: Sophie Jordan Teaser: “They say she’s a killer. One day she will be.”...
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I have spent a lot of time lately adding to my TBR list with 2016 and even some 2017 books. BLARG I can't stop. I am an addict to adding more and more to my TBR. Here are some recent cover releases for this Monday of some books I am looking forward to!
Title: The Abyss Surrounds UsAuthor: Emily SkrutskieGenre: YA Science Fiction GLBT with PIRATES!Number of Pages: 288Release Date: February 8th 2016 by FluxBlurb:
For Cassandra Leung, bossing around sea monsters is just the family business. She’s been a Reckoner trainer-in-training ever since she could walk, raising the genetically-engineered beasts to defend ships as they cross the pirate-infested NeoPacific. But when the pirate queen Santa Elena swoops in on Cas’s first solo mission and snatches her from the bloodstained decks, Cas’s dream of being a full-time trainer seems dead in the water.There’s no time to mourn. Waiting for her on the pirate ship is an unhatched Reckoner pup. Santa Elena wants to take back the seas with a monster of her own, and she needs a proper trainer to do it. She orders Cas to raise the pup, make sure he imprints on her ship, and, when the time comes, teach him to fight for the pirates. If Cas fails, her blood will be the next to paint the sea.But Cas has fought pirates her entire life. And she's not about to stop.
Title: The Shadow QueenAuthor: C.J. RedwineGenre: YA High Fantasy Fairy Tale RetellingNumber of Pages: 400Release Date: February 23rd 2016 by Balzer + BrayBlurb:
Lorelai Diederich, crown princess and fugitive at large, has one mission: kill the wicked queen who took both the Ravenspire throne and the life of her father. To do that, Lorelai needs to use the one weapon she and Queen Irina have in common—magic. She’ll have to be stronger, faster, and more powerful than Irina, the most dangerous sorceress Ravenspire has ever seen.In the neighboring kingdom of Eldr, when Prince Kol’s father and older brother are killed by an invading army of magic-wielding ogres, the second-born prince is suddenly given the responsibility of saving his kingdom. To do that, Kol needs magic—and the only way to get it is to make a deal with the queen of Ravenspire, promise to become her personal huntsman…and bring her Lorelai’s heart.But Lorelai is nothing like Kol expected—beautiful, fierce, and unstoppable—and despite dark magic, Lorelai is drawn in by the passionate and troubled king. Fighting to stay one step ahead of the dragon huntsman—who she likes far more than she should—Lorelai does everything in her power to ruin the wicked queen. But Irina isn’t going down without a fight, and her final move may cost the princess the one thing she still has left to lose.
Title: Sword and VerseAuthor: Kathy MacMillanGenre: YA High FantasyNumber of Pages: 400Release Date: January 19th 2016 by HarperTeenBlurb:
Raisa was only a child when she was kidnapped and enslaved in Qilara. Forced to serve in the palace of the king, she’s endured hunger, abuse, and the harrowing fear of discovery: everyone knows she is Arnath, but not that Raisa is a Learned One, a part of an Arnath group educated in higher order symbols. In Qilara, this language is so fiercely protected that only the King, the Prince, and Tutors are allowed to know it. So when the current Tutor-in-training is executed for sharing the guarded language with slaves, and Raisa is chosen to replace her, Raisa knows that—although she may have a privileged position among slaves—any slip-up could mean death.That would be challenging enough, but training alongside Prince Mati could be her real undoing. And when a romance blossoms between them, she’s suddenly filled with a dangerous hope for something she never before thought possible: more. Then she’s propositioned by the Resistance—an underground army of slaves—to help liberate the Arnath people. Joining the rebellion could mean freeing her people…but she’d also be aiding in the war against her beloved—an honorable man that she knows wants to help the slaves.Working against the one she loves—and a palace full of deadly political renegades—has some heady consequences. As Raisa struggles with what’s right, she unwittingly uncovers a secret that the Qilarites have long since buried…one that, unlocked, could bring the current world order to its knees.And Raisa is the one holding the key.
Title: A Drop of NightAuthor: Stefan BachmanGenre: YA Mystery ThrillerNumber of Pages: 384Release Date: March 15th 2016 by Greenwillow BooksBlurb:
Five gifted teenagers are selected out of hundreds of other candidates to fly to France and help with the excavation of a vast, underground palace buried a hundred feet below the suburbs of Paris. Built in the 1780's to hide an aristocratic family and a mad duke during the French Revolution, the palace was sealed after the aristocrats fled there. No one has set foot in it for over two centuries.Now, in the present day, the teenagers enter with cutting-edge technology, state-of-the-art security, scientists and chaperones. And then a brutal accident occurs. No way out. Caught in the dark.They will have to fight to survive. But are they really alone in the depths? -
Top Ten Books I'd Love To See As Movies/Tv Shows
I love this week’s Top Ten. Hopefully all of our posts will give a nudge to Hollywood.
Number #10
Title: Article 5 (#1)
Author: Kristen Simmons
Genre: YA Dystopian
Number of Pages: 362
Release Date: January 1st, 2012 by Tor Teen
This story would make a gritty, realistically violent movie or television series. The world is vast and over controlled by the new America that replaces the Bill of Rights with the Moral Statutes. I’d love to watch the romance between Ember and Chase. The book is perfect blend of action and little moments that make you swoon.
Number #9
Title: Under the Never Sky
Author: Veronica Rossi
Genre: YA Dystopian
Number of Pages: 374
Release Date: January 3rd, 2012 by HarperCollins
PLEASE OH PLEASE make this a movie. I will beg on my hands and knees. This is seriously one of my all-time favorite series with a perfect example of a swoon-worthy romance. Perry is my numero uno book boyfriend. You can’t have him.
Number #8
Title: Dorothy Must Die (#1)
Author: Danielle Paige
Genre: YA Retelling
Number of Pages: 452
Release Date: April 1st, 2014 by HarperCollins
Need I explain. Wizard of Oz. Retelling. There, explained.
Number #7
Title: Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles #1)
Author: Marissa Meyer
Genre: YA Retelling/Science Fiction
Number of Pages: 390
Release Date: January 3rd, 2012 by Feiwel & Friends
This tale is amazingly descriptive with a world I feel like I MUST see. I would love to see the words reimagined and shown on screen.
Number #6
Title: Thirteen Reasons Why
Author: Jay Asher
Genre: YA Contemporary
Number of Pages: 304
Release Date: October 18th, 2007 by Razorbill
Hauntingly beautiful and true to the realistic troubles that young people face, this is a story that needs to be told. If not by someone reading Jay Asher’s eloquent words, then by a big screen.
Number #5
Title: Redeeming Love
Author: Francine Rivers
Genre: Historical Fiction
Number of Pages: 464
Release Date: May 9th, 2005 by Multnomah Books
Truthfully, I don’t usually read Christian fiction, which is what this book is filed under, but this is a story that anyone can enjoy and take a great deal from. It tells the tale of a young girl that is sold to prostitution, and slowly learns what real love and healing means. I cried many, many times while reading.
Number #4
Title: The Crucible
Author: Arthur Miller, Christopher Bigsby
Genre: YA Historical Fiction
Number of Pages: 143
Release Date: March 25th, 2004 by Penguin Classics
I know this has already been made into a movie, but I would love to see this as a television series. This was a mournful time in our history, that can be mirrored to judgments we place on others today.
Number #3
Title: Bunnicula
Author: James Howe, Deborah Howe
Genre: YA Horror
Number of Pages: 128
Release Date: August 8th, 2006 by Atheneum Books for Young Readers (First published in 1979).
Laugh it up, because I would too. I’m actually not sure if it was ever made into a movie, but even so I’d love a remake. This is a comedic horror story about a vampire bunny. Oh, the nostalgia.
Number #2
Title: Sex Criminals, Vol. 1: One Weird Trick
Author: Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky
Genre: Romance/Comedic Graphic Novel
Number of Pages: 128
Release Date: April 29th, 2014 by Image Comics
This would make for one freaking hilarious (and rated R at least) movie. The art and little things you see in the background make this graphic novel an awesome ride start to finish. And it’s not just a story about sex. It has plot!
Number #1
Title: The Dead House
Author: Dawn Kurtagich
Genre: YA Thriller/Horror
Number of Pages: 440
Release Date: August 6th, 2015 by Orion Children’s Books
I haven’t even read this yet, and I already want to see the movie. -
Title: The Girl From the Well (Book #1)
Author: Rin Chupeco
Teaser: “She will rise from the depths and seek vengeance.”
Genre: YA Paranormal Horror
Number of pages: 267
Released: August 5th, 2014 by Sourcebooks Fire
Description:
You may think me biased, being murdered myself. But my state of being has nothing to do with the curiosity toward my own species, if we can be called such. We do not go gentle, as your poet encourages, into that good night.
A dead girl walks the streets.
She hunts murderers. Child killers, much like the man who threw her body down a well three hundred years ago.
And when a strange boy bearing stranger tattoos moves into the neighborhood so, she discovers, does something else. And soon both will be drawn into the world of eerie doll rituals and dark Shinto exorcisms that will take them from American suburbia to the remote valleys and shrines of Aomori, Japan.
Because the boy has a terrifying secret - one that would just kill to get out.The Girl from the Well is a YA Horror novel pitched as "Dexter" meets "The Grudge", based on a well-loved Japanese story.
Positives:
-The prose. Hauntingly beautiful. Creative and intimate. Lush and intricate. I will read everything this author releases, just for her delicate, thoughtful writing.
-The characters. The main character, the ghost, is expertly “shown” to the reader. What I mean by this is that the author doesn’t have to have the character outright say “this is who I am and what I’m like”. The author shows this by even little things the character does or reacts.
-The retelling. This story takes the poorly developed written story in the movie The Ring. Sure, even I loved that movie because I thought it was so scary. But this book takes that story and brings life, story, history, plot, and tear-jerking reality to it.
Negatives:
-The length. Only because I would have wanted to read MORE.
Overview:
I am not one for YA Horror. Personally, I thought they wouldn’t be scary enough, would be cheesy, or would be poorly written in an irritating way. This book has some –very- scary parts that almost made me think… “If this was a movie it would NOT be for kids.” The best part of the book for me though was that she took Horror and made it scary AND beautiful. How does one do that? I don’t even know.
The plot was perfect for me. I could see a certain few people thinking it is ‘slow’ or not dramatic enough, but I don’t think they are truly appreciating the book then. The story flows like water that is just quiet enough you can barely hear it in the dark of night. It elevates and then descends to where you can feel the emotions and the spaces. The story develops where I was emotionally attached to the boy, but to the ghost girl in an even more strong way. I can’t wait to see more of her.
I cannot speak enough about how much I loved the ghost character. She was written perfectly. She actually doesn’t say much in the book, but you feel her so easily. Instead of having a lot of dialogue with the other characters of the book, you feel as if she is having dialogue directly with you.
Overall, this book is amazing. Changed my mind about YA Horror and made me fall in love with the author. This is a beautiful work that took a played out story from the movies and retold it with a history and background that I can’t wait to explore more.
Rating:
Recommended to:
-Everyone.
Not Recommended to:
-….No one.
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