Book Review: Deadzone (Horizon #2)

Release Date: September 12, 2017
Author: Jennifer A. Nielsen
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Length: 208 pages
Source: Review Copy from Publisher

The survivors have made it out of the jungle, but they may be sorry they ever left when they stumble upon a whole new ecosystem, populated with entirely new threats.

And the greatest threat of all may come from within. Because one of the kids is changing...

The seven-book series begun by #1 New York Times bestseller Scott Westerfeld only gets bigger and bolder under the frenzied imagination of bestselling, critically acclaimed author Jennifer A. Nielsen!

    

Review:

Protagonists: As our heroes traverse a new ecosystem, more about their pasts come to light. After surviving the Rift's jungle the survivors of a downed Horizon flight have found that somehow they are right where they're supposed to be, just in some sort of Rift in the earth that houses multiple ecosystems and countless terrors. They journey to find the truth of where they are and hope to find a way home. There are still a lot of characters in this book, but by now I think I've gotten a good handle on who they are as characters and this book, while short, does a lot to flesh out these characters and show new sides of them. My favorite character is probably Yoshi, he's heroic and adventurous, but what really draws me to him is just how flawed he is. He's impulsive, selfish, stubborn, a lone wolf, and will lie to get his way, but that doesn't keep him from having some fantastic character development in this book. All of the characters, in some way or another, have similar character development, though it varies in substance.

World Building: A new book means a new environment, and a new environment means new challenges. One of the things that really hooked me about this world was that there's just this random rift in the middle of a tundra and that these kids have to traverse it uncovering secrets along the way. Honestly, other than showing off a completely new environment there isn't all that much in terms of world-building that I can talk about without spoiling things. Honestly, there isn't all that much, don't get me wrong the things learned in this book make up for that, it's just that I felt like I came out with more questions than answers and I'm interested to see how many are answered in the next installment.

Predictability: This book is by far more unpredictable than the previous one. In the first installment we were getting to know these characters and this world while crazy stuff happened, but now that it's easier to understand what's going on and just what might happen, well, it gets intense. I won't say that there are a whole lot of twists and turns in this story because a lot of this story is still about these characters and their interpersonal relationships as they try and escape, and also because this book is so short, but the twists that are in here are the gut-punching, I can't believe that just happened, kind. In terms of things I could predict, there wasn't all that much in fact I never had one of those, "Oh because of this, this, and this, that will happen" kind of moments.

Ending: As this book begins to head toward the final climax, I wasn't sure what would happen. Before I could really ponder it all that long, things... went... down... Now the final climax wasn't the intense action scene I was hoping for, but honestly, I was sort of intense action-ed out and liked that it became more of a game of intense strategy, with just a bit of action. The cooldown period was a bit plateaued, but the last line, that was a bit of a cliffhanger and I can't wait to see what happens next.

Rating:

Despite being a rather short book without all that much world building I really enjoyed this story and a lot of questions were raised and are still up in the air and I can't wait to see and learn more about this world!

Book Review: CJ's Treasure Chase (Disney Descendants: School of Secrets #1)

Release Date: August 30, 2016
Author: Jessica Brody
Publisher: Disney Press
Length: 192 pages
Source: Library Book

CJ is the daughter of Captain James Hook. She's fierce. She's swashbuckling. And she has big dreams. . . like finding the treasure she's known about since she was a little girl stranded on the Isle of the Lost. When CJ sneaks out of Auradon Prep with her best friend, Freddie, they go on a wild chase to find it.

The School of Secrets series of chapter books continues the story of Mal and her friends, plus new Villain kids and Auradon kids introduced in the popular Wicked World short form videos. Enjoy these all-new tales of mystery, magic and adventure from the world of the hit movie Descendants!

    

Review:

Protagonist: CJ Hook as found a way off the Isle of the Lost, she stows away on a spell cast by the genie Jordan and is hiding out in her best friend Freddie's dorm room. She doesn't plan on going to Auradon Prep, however, no, CJ has much more adventurous plans in mind. Ever since she was young CJ has dreamed of following a map she found in her the hold of her father's ship, a map that just may be magical, but until now she didn't have any access to magic. It was really interesting to read from a real VK's perspective in this series. I mean, in the novels written by Melissa De La Cruz, we see from the original Auradon VK's perspectives, but they're either not in Auradon yet, like with the first installment, or they had been reformed though still struggled with their dark sides a little. However, CJ is a roguish riot, sneaking around Auradon Prep as to not be discovered and sent back to the Isle, or threatening to kidnap people and force them to do what she wants on her treasure chase. She does have a good bit of character development in this story, though not exactly in the way I was assuming when I cracked this book open.

World Building: So if you read my review of Rise of the Isle of the Lost by Melissa De La Cruz, I mentioned how I was getting tired of constantly going back to the Isle without really getting to see the rest of Auradon, however, this story has very little Isle, but a good chunk of Auradon to explore. There's quite a bit of backtracking in this story as the author wrote in little callouts to the Descendants movie as well as the Wicked World shorts, but seeing it from a different perspective kept those moments from getting boring. However, once this story gets caught up with the end of the first season of the Wicked World shorts, things really spring into high gear and it sees our protagonist race across Auradon in hopes of laying her hands on this amazing treasure she's dreamed about since she was little. It was a lot of fun getting to see more of this world and while I had braced myself for this feeling like it was written for a Middle-Grade audience like the De La Cruz sometimes do, or even written for a younger audience than that, it never happened. I liked how reading this short adventure felt like it was written for fans of the series, no matter what age they might be.

Predictability: So, while I never felt talked down to in the writing and the world building of this story, the plot of the story was rather predictable. Well, sort of. See, this isn't a long story and so the author only has so many pages to get from point A to point B and so there's not a lot of time to set up big twists and turns. So the adventure, while very enjoyable was a tad predictable. That being said though, there were still a few times where, given CJ's wild card personality, I wasn't quite sure where the story would take me.

Ending: I don't know what to say about this ending. I mean it's a very short story, very quick to fly through in one sitting and while the final climax of the story was really fun and we got to see a lot of CJ's character development come to light, as she faced her final hurdle toward the treasure, there wasn't as big of an ending to this story as there is in something like the other novels, or even the movie. However, there is a pretty great cooldown period where we learn of CJ's fate going forward and a bit of a tease at what's to come next in the School of Secrets series. I was pretty surprised where things ended up and while I'm sad that CJ's not going to be the main protagonist for the whole series I'm excited to read more stories in this world.

Rating:

Like I said in my review, I was bracing myself and dragging my heels to read this story since I expected it to either be geared toward an MG or younger audience or for it to be unbelievably cheesy. It wasn't though, there's a little bit of cheesy-ness in the story but overall it was a fun and exciting adventure and I'm kind of stoked to read the other School of Secrets books and have more adventures in this world.

Book Review: Labyrinth Lost (Brooklyn Brujas #1)

Release Date: September 6, 2016
Author: Zoraida Córdova
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Length: 336 pages
Source: eGalley from NetGalley

Nothing says Happy Birthday like summoning the spirits of your dead relatives.

I fall to my knees. Shattered glass, melted candles and the outline of scorched feathers are all that surround me. Every single person who was in my house – my entire family — is gone.

Alex is a bruja, the most powerful witch in a generation…and she hates magic. At her Deathday celebration, Alex performs a spell to rid herself of her power. But it backfires. Her whole family vanishes into thin air, leaving her alone with Nova, a brujo boy she can’t trust. A boy whose intentions are as dark as the strange markings on his skin.

The only way to get her family back is to travel with Nova to Los Lagos, a land in-between, as dark as Limbo and as strange as Wonderland…

Beautiful Creatures meets Daughter of Smoke and Bone with an infusion of Latin American tradition in this highly original fantasy adventure.

    

Review:

Protagonist: Alex fears her magic. She fears what her magic might mold her into becoming. When her Deathday party arrives, the day she receives a special blessing from her ancestors, she decides to eliminate her magic instead, but instead of losing her magic, her entire family is pulled into Los Lagos, a mysterious land in between, and it's up to Alex and a dark and possibly dangerous brujo named Nova to rescue them. Alex is a very strong character, but she's ruled by her fear. She fears her magic and what it might lead to, but as she journey's through Los Lagos and it's many terrifying and wondrous attractions she needs to learn to accept herself and flip her perspective on her powers and start looking at them as a gift instead of a curse. I felt that Alex's character development and progression was executed very realistically, and combining that with such a dynamic and passionate character it makes for one heck of a journey.

Romance: This is probably going to be the hardest portion of this review to write. I honestly wasn't a huge fan of the romance in this book. The good news is that romance doesn't play a particularly large role in the story, the bad news is that even though it doesn't represent a large portion of the story, I just wish it was developed better. There is a love triangle in this book, now I'm not opposed to love triangles in general, it's all about how they play out, but this one just felt all over the place. At first, it's made pretty clear who one of the love interests is, that would be Nova, but the second love interest isn't even hinted at being a romantic candidate, let alone confirmed as one until nearly three-quarters of the way through the book and without any prior romantic tension or chemistry I just couldn't really care, and then the love triangle just sort of sorts itself out without any real deliberation which just doesn't really work for me. I wish I could have cared more for this romance but for something that's not even a large part of the story it really started to bug me.

World Building: My absolute favorite part about this story is the world building. After the story is done there's an Author's Notes section that goes into detail about some of the things that are actually part of latinx culture and folklore and what is of the author's own creation, and I have to say I'm in awe of just how much of the lore in this tale was created by the author because it just seems to fit in so well with everything else. One of the things I enjoyed the most were the parallels to other famous mythologies such as Greek, Egyptian, and Norse. There were many parts that seemed nearly plucked out of, specifically Greek, mythology and adapted to fit in with the story and this culture. The adventure that Alex and Nova embark on in this story is so richly described, it has all the classic hallmarks of an otherworldly adventure without coming off cliche.  The world of Los Lagos comes alive and it's not hard at all to nearly see what's around these characters at any given point. I'd best equate it to wonderland or the Grecian underworld, there are many sections to it that form a whole and rarely any section is safe for outsiders.

Predictability: Another small problem with this story is how things are foreshadowed. Sometimes the author does a slam dunk job foreshadowing a big event or twist in this story, it either shocks me like it should or I called it yet was still extremely pumped about it. Then there were times that things were so constantly brought up and foreshadowed that it lost all enjoyment when the time finally came for things to happen. Worst of all though there were times when there was very little or no foreshadowing for events and twists that desperately need the reader to feel a build up for or be clued into before they're blindsided and can't recover to truly enjoy what happened. Now I'm happy to say that most of the time the story went off without a hitch and the author definitely caught me off guard in a good way a few times in this story, but some of the subpar foreshadowed moments really took me out of the story, sometimes literally, after one twist I stopped reading for a while until I could get my head on straight.

Ending: I'm trying to articulate my pure wonder and awe at how this story ended, specifically the final climax of the story and the epilogue but I can't quite figure out how to explain how epic everything was. The final climax was not only action packed but really brought the themes of this story and Alex's journey both internally and externally to the forefront as she faced down the thing that stole her family. Then there was the epilogue. Now going into this I had assumed that this series would be more a series of standalone companion novels and while I may be partially right that didn't stop the author from writing in one hell of a cliffhanger. I honestly wasn't expecting what happens to happen and if I wasn't already excited about the next book in this series I would be now!

Rating:

There is so much I love about this story, from the main character to the wondrously strange world she traverses to the mythos and tales told in this novel, there's so much to enjoy. I can't wait for the next book in this series and I'm excited to see where these characters go next.