WARNING: There is a fair bit of adult content to contend with, so not for younger readers

I was reading this book with the express purpose of a book versus movie write up; however, after watching the trailer, I don’t think I’ll be sinking money into seeing the film. If the deviations from the book are that obvious in a minute long clip… nope, not going there.

As for the book, I got it read it in less than 24 hours: virtually one sitting. I even took it to dinner at a restaurant to find out what happened next.

Kody has done a great job of making her characters easy to relate to and flawed. The parental units are visible even from the back seat of the storyline. They have their own demons to slay, and I like that they have their own character arcs and aren’t just tea pots.

The general storyline is about Bianca and Wesley. Their ‘enemies with benefits relationship’ is sordid and twisted, beginning when Wesley asks Bianca what it’s like being the Duff of her friendship group. (Designated Ugly Fat Friend)

Between all the sex, and the secrets, there’s a tale of addiction, personal struggles, and the importance of being true to yourself, at any age. On the surface this seems like it would be a shallow fluff of a book, but it surely runs deeper than expected.

A perfect read for the Easter Holidays.

Oh, and let me know what you thought of the film if you saw it.

http://kodykeplinger.com/

Paperback, 320 pages

Published January 13th 2015 by Poppy (first published September 7th 2010)

ISBN 0316381802 (ISBN13: 9780316381802)

I’ll be the first to admit that because of this cover and because of this title, I assumed this book was going to be about a girl who likes “dating” bad boys. I was excited to see a YA book, where a teenage girl isn’t always perfect, smart and/or shy. I was ready for a girl who plays the field, and who couldn’t care any less what other people thought of her–who was smart, but also willing to have fun and just live life. I thought this book was going to be it.

…but I assumed all of this without ever reading the synopsis.

After finally cracking it open and giving it a read, I realized just how wrong I was. This book is about ZOMBIES!! How crazy?! From now on, I will always read the synopsis and will never just assume something from the title and the cover.

Bad Taste in Boys is about a kind of nerdy girl named Kate, who was invisible before she the football team’s assistant. She’s interested in medical sciences, so she enjoys working with the injured football players, and diagnosing their pains. The popularity aspect just came along with the job.

After a long losing streak, the football team has lost all of its hopes, and team member are losing their confidence in their skills. So the coach asks Kate to give each of the players an injection of an unlabelled drug. Kate knows better than to give anyone any unlabelled drugs, so she explains to the coach that she won’t do it. Why is the coach giving the team these drugs? What are they? Are they steroids?

Kate knows she has to do something about this. But who would believe her without any sort of evidence?

Doing more research, and snooping around, Kate soon discovers that the players are starting to act really strange. The colour of their skin is changing, some of them are getting aggressive, and some aren’t even speaking English any more, but are just groaning instead. …Kate thought steroids were bad…but zombies are much worse…

Obviously this story isn’t what I expected it to be. The characters weren’t memorable, the story was a little bit hard to believe (yes, I know it was about zombies…but still). Maybe it’s because I expected the book to be something completely different, or maybe because I’m too old. But I just didn’t enjoy this one as much as I hoped.

After reading the entire story, I still don’t understand how the cover or the title tie in with the story, or has anything to do with zombies.

Joe’s twin brother, Alvin, disappeared. And with him went Joe’s tenuous grip on real life. The rest of it: the road trip, the maybe-murder, the burned-down house–all of that came later.

At eighteen, Joe is stuck in limbo. Directionless and simple, he blows through his inheritance playing poker and eats only cheeseburgers, pizza, and guacamole. Then his twin brother, Alvin, disappears–and Julia, Alvin’s tempestuous girlfriend, takes Joe on a whirlwind road trip from L.A. to Tennessee. There, he’s thrust into the dysfunctional dynamic of her wealthy family. For the first time, Joe has a job. He has a suit he wears every day. And he’s in love with a crazy, beautiful girl who only talks honestly in her sleep. Joe’s so blinded by his seductive new life that he almost misses the truth about what happened to his twin…

Maybe Joe can’t grow up–but he can love.

Paperback, 232 pages

Published February 2nd 2012 by Razorbill

Now here is a story that threw me for a loop. It’s a contemporary tale with a light mystery atmosphere, and it is a curious read – the main character we follow is in a limbo state, and ‘simple’ is a kind way to describe him (as the summary does). He is introduced to us about six months after his twin brother has run off with a girl. They have never been separated before, and Joe has taken to ‘speaking’ to his brother through hallucinations. He now lives with his older brother Marcus, and their personalities clash.

Joe spends his time playing poker, gambling away his $100 a day inheritance, eating at McDonalds, and wandering. Those are the only things on his mind and, when he is out of money, he wanders home. His brother, Marcus, had to raise the twins after their parents died, and is strict and always thinking about the future. His life is planned out and the fact that Joe doesn’t seem to care about anything but Alvin, frustrates Marcus no end. Alvin appears out of the blue one day and takes Joe to dinner, also inviting him to sail around the world with him. But by morning he is gone, and Julia appears. They decide that Joe will return with Julia to her home in Tennessee and work Alvin’s old pool boy job.

It seems that all of the characters are attracted to Joe because of his simplicity; he is always ready to go along with whatever is happening and only speaks up regarding his ‘special diet’ from which he will not stray. Julia likes the quiet, unassuming Joe who doesn’t judge her or ask too many questions. They fall into a romance of lazy days and comfortable, relaxing nights, which is a good way to describe the atmosphere of this story: very laid back, breezy, and uncomplicated. The story peaks towards the end as the real mystery comes to a head: where did Alvin go?

Each character introduced into the story plays a pretty major role in the plot. There are few minor characters as Joe’s world is pretty small. We get to know each of the characters well and they all come full circle as the story-lines unravel. The pacing is steady throughout and I felt like I was a part of the story, easily losing myself in the events, and sometimes feeling like I was in a dream-like state while reading.

What I liked about the story was that it was unusual. I never thought that a character who has no character could make for an interesting novel. The author pulls us in by introducing a complicated circle of ‘other’ personalities who make up for it. That is the reason I’d recommend it; I don’t read a lot of contemporary romance, but this was not your usual…

Jonas lives in a world without war, poverty, hunger or violence. Safety is all that he has ever known; but it is also a world without choice. All decisions are made by the Elders. From the names that the children are given, to the clothes that they wear and the careers they take on as adults, every aspect of Jonas’ life is in the hands of more qualified individuals.

When Jonas is skipped at the Ceremony of Twelve – the ceremony where he and his classmates all receive notification of their future careers – he fears the worst. What he gets is beyond anything he could have imagined. He has been chosen to be the next Receiver of Memory – an occupation that means taking all of the experiences off the current Receiver. It means being able to see in colour, being allowed to lie, and being able to experience emotions far deeper than that of anyone else in the community. What it also means is pain, loneliness, and the ability to analyse a community that might not be so perfect after all.

First published in 1993, The Giver is one of the earlier dystopian novels aimed at a younger audience. With a twelve-year-old protagonist and point of view, this is aimed at more of a middle-school age group. The themes, however, will resonate with people of any age.

The world in The Giver is a darkly fascinating and terribly believable one. A world so intent on achieving utopia that it destroys anything or anyone that deviates from the ideals set. Like any truly good dystopia, we see echoes of these sentiments in the real world. The one great lesson in The Giver is to question everything. It’s not a preachy novel, but it shows that utopia has a price – just not necessarily one paid for by the people privileged enough to live there. The importance of empathy and the dangers of being emotionally stunted to the horrors in the world is another thing that is touched on.

There are times when the world’s logistics don’t work. Mathematically, a huge proportion of women would have to be birth mothers if each couple got two children and birth mothers had three children each. It doesn’t seem as though the majority of women are birth mothers though. Aside from this, the ideals of the novel are sound.

The Giver is one of those remarkable books that leave a reader wanting more. It’s not that the book itself is not enough, but that the ideas are complex and need more room to unravel.

The Giver – Lois Lowry

Harper Collins (1993)

ISBN: 9780007263516

The poverty stricken Reds are commoners, living under the rule of the Silvers, elite warriors with god-like powers. To Mare Barrow, a 17-year-old Red girl from The Stilts, it looks like nothing will ever change.
Mare finds herself working in the Silver Palace, at the center of those she hates the most. She quickly discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy Silver control. But power is a dangerous game. And in this world divided by blood, who will win?

The Silvers hold the highest ranks in society; they are privileged, rich, and beautiful. Mare, however, is a Red; she steals money for her family and they work for the Silvers or are sent to war. Mare has some ideas about how to steal more money to help her family in a desperate time, but these go awry. Instead of being executed or punished, she finds herself in a job at the palace, thanks to a compassionate man she meets on the street. But it turns out that working in the palace isn’t a stroke of good luck after all.

There is a fantastic ensemble of characters in this book, from the cruel and snobbish Silvers, to the bitter and enraged Reds. Nobody is happy in this society where there is constant war and attacks on both groups. There is an added element of technology with most of the Silver King’s guard consisting of sentinels, security, and soldiers. We have the King, the Queen, their two sons, and the rest of the royal court. They are privileged and have been trained by the best. Their powers are strong and used on everybody, and there are not many secrets in the Palace.

Mare is trained for a higher position in the court, which strengthens her powers. She is mostly hated by the royal family, but seems to have found a friend in Maven and a love interest in Cal; both are Princes and both want change. There is as much focus on the characters as there is on the world building. With the addition of technology and powers, the battle and training scenes are fantastical and large, with some taking place in arenas. There are many people that get hurt, die, and there is a constant paranoia that you can never trust anybody.

The narration is all told from one perspective: Mare’s. There are plenty of action scenes and the characters are unrelenting and set in their ways. When there is powerful magic involved, it can be intimidating and challenging. Mare has just discovered her powers and everybody around her has been trained since birth, leaving her reliant on anybody who seems trustworthy. We get a fully rounded world with its history to draw us into the story.

Having recently read the Selection Series by Kierra Cass, and Pawn by Aimee Carter, I often found myself trying to compare the stories. Red Queen stood out among the others due to the greater detail in the world building and the complexity of the unravelling story. There were fun plot twists, along with a couple of shocking ones that have driven me crazy because I want to read more. I was impressed with the way this story was put together and I was flying through the pages of the last third of the novel to see how it ended. It’s a bit sci-fi and a bit fantasy, with battling kingdoms and servant standing against their rulers. Red Queen was an entertaining story that I definitely recommend you read.