I was drawn to this book because it’s a survival story. I also love the cover art, a young girl with her dog. She looks like a survivor, andLoved it!
I was drawn to this book because it’s a survival story. I also love the cover art, a young girl with her dog. She looks like a survivor, and I wanted to know her story.
I just loved the format of the story in verse. While the book looks like a chunkster, it’s a quick read.
Maddie made a great heroine. Girl power, indeed! She endured a lot. Having a child of a similar age, I can’t imagine her being left behind like Maddie and forced to go it alone.
Trigger warning for the animal abuse/death, which broke my heart. I could have done without reading that.
The ending felt a bit rushed, and I find myself wishing that the book was longer to find out more about the other side of the story. Maybe the author will write a companion novel!
My first read from this author. I did enjoy it, but I was hoping for something "more" if you know what I mean. I was disappointed by the ending.My first read from this author. I did enjoy it, but I was hoping for something "more" if you know what I mean. I was disappointed by the ending....more
My first read from this author, and I want more! I had heard that it was effed up, and it really was! It's dark and twisted, like a Stephen K3.5 stars
My first read from this author, and I want more! I had heard that it was effed up, and it really was! It's dark and twisted, like a Stephen King read like Quitters, Inc. I can't wait to read more from Neuvel!...more
I was pretty stoked when I read the first book in this series, Nemesis, last year. Reichs left me wanting more, and this one was equally satisfying!
ThI was pretty stoked when I read the first book in this series, Nemesis, last year. Reichs left me wanting more, and this one was equally satisfying!
The story continues where Nemesis leaves off, approximately three weeks after the Guardian reveals the truth to the kids of Fire Lake about how Earth has been destroyed and that they are all living in a virtual reality bubble as strings of code. The scientists at Project Nemesis have found a way to bring the kids back as real living beings by downloading their codes into clones, but the system can only handle bringing back a certain number of kids. So, how do you decide who gets to come back to life? Easy! You pit the kids against each other and make them kill one other! Yes, it's sick and twisted, but this is the only way to ensure that the strong will survive. It is a survival of the fittest. Each kid has a limited number of "resets," just like the Beta patients experienced with their birthday killings. Once they are used up, they won't be coming back.
Reichs really knows how to spin a dark and exciting tale. Tack made my heart ache, and he puts his love for Min to the test. In a game of survival, you really find out what someone is made of.
Memorable quote:
"I don't want to become an animal just to survive. That's the difference between us, I guess."
I believe this was originally planned to be a duology, but Reichs recently announced that there will indeed be a third book! Yippee!
This audiobook is dually narrated by Kirby Heyborne and Emily Rankin, and they are both ideally suited to this story. As I was with Nemesis, I found myself riveted and had a hard time taking out my earbuds!
I received a complimentary copy of this audiobook for voluntary review consideration.
I love dystopia, and I was really interested to read this one which sounded so creepy. I really enjoyed it, and I am looking forward to reading the seI love dystopia, and I was really interested to read this one which sounded so creepy. I really enjoyed it, and I am looking forward to reading the sequel!
The main character is Fiona. When she awakens, she's in her bedroom but it doesn't look the same. Everything is dirty and faded. As she wanders around the house, she sees her reflection in the mirror and at first thinks she's looking at her older sister Alyssa and then realizes that it's her own reflection. She is looking at a grown-up version of herself. She went to sleep as a 13-year-old, and she woke up as a 17-year-old and has no memory of anything that has happened during the past four years. She also has a tattoo on her hand (an oval mark with five lines on each side), and something tells her that she must hide the mark.
Fiona hears a man coming up the stairs, and she gets scared and tries to flee. She manages to get away, and she realizes the man chasing her is her twin brother Jonas...only he's changed too. He's not the same. There's something almost feral about him, and that's why Fiona runs. As she gets away, she can hear dogs barking and guns going off and people screaming. Someone grabs her arm and tells her to jump through the manhole into the sewer to escape if she wants to live.
The first couple of chapters are so fast paced and exciting, which totally sucked me into this strange new world. Poor Fiona! This book has been likened to a Sleeping Beauty reimagining, but the only thing that is similar between this story and the fairy tale is that the main character goes to sleep and stays asleep while years pass and that things are very different when she awakens. So, if you are looking for a fairy tale retelling, this isn't it! However, I don't think you'll be disappointed.
I found Fiona's world fascinating, where it's dangerous to be a Level 10 (more on that later) and more dangerous to be a girl. She learns that people started having bad reactions to a vaccination, which causes them to become violent. The tattoo on her hand shows that she was vaccinated and the lines mean that she was given ten doses. She's known as what is called a Level 10, which are highly prized specimens because they are on the brink of "turning" or have already turned and the people that want her (the raiders) will put her in a pen to fight against other infected people. The militia has built a wall around the city, and only the uninfected people are allowed in. They also won't let in anyone with any physical or mental disability, and the girls are married off at 15 years of age. Once you hit that magic 55, you are put to sleep...like an animal.
There is a lot going on with this one, and I really like what I see so far. There's even a bit of a forbidden romance between Fiona and her old neighbour, who now works for the militia. I have already bought the sequel, Cured, and I can't wait to read it!
Nicole Poole brought a great book to the next level with her stellar narration. Her pace was perfect, and I thought her vocalizations were ideally suited to the characters.
I received a complimentary copy of this audiobook for voluntary review consideration.
Engel did not let me down! This was a satisfying conclusion to The Book of Ivy duology.
I absolutely loved the first audiobook in this series, The BookEngel did not let me down! This was a satisfying conclusion to The Book of Ivy duology.
I absolutely loved the first audiobook in this series, The Book of Ivy, when I listened to it in June. I was very eager to finish this series and to find out what happened to Ivy after she was banished from Westfall. Ivy did better than I thought that she would! She did what she had to do to survive, including killing a lizard for food. My stomach turned when Ivy crossed paths with Mark Laird. In hindsight, she should have treated him like that lizard! He dislocates her shoulder before she gets away, and she takes his bag with her. Ivy is out to prove her father wrong. He told her that no one survives beyond the fence. Not only does Ivy survive, but she thrives! Her strength and determination drive her, and she joins up with a group of other survivors. She is not completely honest with them as to who she really is…that she is a Westfall or the reason why she was exiled. She is wary and does not trust them at first because one of the leaders, Caleb, recognizes the bag as Mark’s and takes it from her to give back to Mark when he returns. If Mark lived with these people, were they like him? It’s too soon to tell, but she grows very fond of one girl in particular, Ash. Things go well for several months before Ivy’s world is turned upside-down. A man is brought into the camp by Caleb and the others, and they’ve beaten him. The man had been looking for someone…Ivy. It is none other than Bishop, and that’s when Ivy has some explaining to do!
Ivy is too good for her family. Her father and sister turned their backs on her, and she returns to Westfall to help Callie who has been imprisoned and will be executed. Bishop is so right when he says that Ivy’s family underestimates her. She is definitely a force to be reckoned with, and she will always protect the ones she loves. Ivy’s character is strong, and she stands up for what she believes in…even if that means making sacrifices. That’s what I loved about her in the previous book! This is a great duology, and I’m sad that the series wasn’t longer but loved how Engel ended it. I wouldn’t change a thing!
Taylor Meskimen continued to narrate the series, and she beautifully captured the essence of Ivy. It was a pleasure listening to her.
Fast-paced and chilling, Nemesis has me wanting more from this new series!
Teenage Melinda “Min” Wilder has a terrifying secret. Since her eighth birthFast-paced and chilling, Nemesis has me wanting more from this new series!
Teenage Melinda “Min” Wilder has a terrifying secret. Since her eighth birthday, Min has been killed by a man in a black suit on every even-year birthday. The method of murder changes, but she always wakes up in the same forest clearing with no evidence of having been harmed. When the police were called in after her first disappearance, she returned home with this wild story and no one believed her. I mean, come on! Who would believe a child saying she had been pushed off a cliff and died but woke up unharmed? When it happened again on her tenth birthday, she was referred to a psychiatrist (Dr. Lowell) who diagnosed her with a severe dissociative disorder and she had been prescribed an experimental drug which she can only get through him.
Min and her best friend, Tack, break into Dr. Lowell’s office so that she can read her file. What she finds is that there is a file on every classmate and that she is part of a top-secret government experiment run by the Department of Defense called Project Nemesis. She finds similar files in the principal’s office, and the experiment has been conducted for the past ten years with his knowledge. Min recalls an event from kindergarten, where there was a chemical spill and that each child had to be given a needle “for protection.” Min and another classmate, Noah, were also sent to a lab for additional treatment. When Min finds consent forms signed by their mothers and indications that they are being used as test patients, she realizes that Noah might also be suffering from the same bizarre birthday killings.
Simultaneously, there are strange natural occurrences going on worldwide. At first, Earth was almost decimated by a near-hit with an asteroid. Once the asteroid’s trajectory showed that Earth was in the clear, everyone heaved a great sigh of relief…that is until tsunamis started battering the west coast and earthquakes began. Then came the comets. Somehow, these natural events are tied to Project Nemesis and Min has to figure out what is going on and her role in it.
With such a unique premise with the birthday killings, I was immediately gripped by the dark story and conspiracy element. Initially, it is told from Min’s perspective but then Noah’s is added to the mix as well as Dr. Lowell’s session transcripts. I like Min, who is kind of an underdog. She lives in a trailer park with her mom, and her dad never stuck around so she never knew him. She’s a bit of a loner and social outcast, definitely not a part of the in-crowd. Tack is bullied by the jocks, and Min stands up for her friend. Noah is from one of the richest families in Fire Lake, but he has an absent father who is more interested in his revolving door of women than in being a dad. I felt a bit sorry for Noah, but he also ticked me off when he caved to peer pressure from his buddies. Tack is so funny and a real smart-aleck, and it was obvious how much he cared for Min.
Brendan Reichs is a new-to-me author, and I can’t wait to continue on with this series!
Emily Rankin was the narrator for Min, and there were also two male narrators: Kirby Heyborne and Paul Boehmer. I believe that Heyborne was the narrator for Noah and that Boehmer was the narrator for Dr. Lowell. I feel that having multiple narrators adds dimension to the characters and the story, so I really enjoyed all three of them! Both Rankin and Heyborne were convincing as teenagers. The last three hours of the audiobook were a thrilling ride, and I had a hard time taking out my earbuds!
I received a complimentary copy of this audiobook for voluntary review consideration.
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