Lord of the Flies by William Golding

So I never read this book in high school. I think we were supposed to when I was a sophmore or freshman, but we never got to it. The story begins with a group of 6-14 year old boys finding themselves stranded on an island without any adults surviving the plane crash. A leader emerges, Ralph, who declares that a fire must be kept burning while they are on the island so they can be rescued. Piggy, a bespectacled heavy lad, thinks it is important to take down everyone's name and to build shelter, but is extremely supportive of Ralph having a leadership role. But Jack thinks finding meat is more important than anything. Eventually, the boys split into two groups: a group with Ralph and a group with Jack. As time goes on, more and more boys defect to Jack's group because they are able to catch wild pig, and with fewer boys able to keep a fire going, eventually it goes out. This leads to a tete-a-tete between Ralph and Jack.  

Champion (Legend #3) by Marie Lu

Marie Lu finishes up her Legend trilogy with Champion. Day and June are back in the Republic, with June serving as Princeps-Elect and Day keeping to himself and keeping his brain tumor (?) to himself while he cares for his blind brother, Eden. However, a plague originally engineered in the Republic is taking over the Colonies, making the threat of war imminent. While the Republic is desperately trying to find a cure for the plague, Day has to help the Elector plan how to save the Republic against the Colonies if they do attack. I thought it was a really good ending to a series (unlike Mockingjay...huff).

Horde (Razorland #3) by Ann Aguirre

This book picks up where Outpost left us. Since I read it recently, I cannot accurately judge if Aguirre left me enough "breadcrumbs" to remember where the last book left off. Anyway, the Freaks have destroyed Salvation and seem to be getting smarter with each new generation. Deuce and Company go to a nearby town (Soldier's Pond) to get help to defeat the horde (group of Freaks), but when they return, it is more of a rescue mission than anything. While in Soldier's Pond, Deuce is not allowed to join their military to fight the Freaks, so she decides to make a military of her own by convincing volunteers to fight with her. She travels around the countryside, visiting other small settlements, but is often laughed out of town. Deciding that it is best to prove the worth of her small army, they stake out a forest close to Soldier's Pond and defend it from any Freaks that come into it. Word travels about how well she and her army are doing and eventually towns that originally ignored them need her help. But there are so many Freaks and not enough humans to defeat them. Will Deuce get enough volunteers and outwit the Freaks?

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

Eleanor and Park is set in the 80s. Sometimes the point of view is from Eleanor, others it is from Park. Eleanor is new at school and stands out because of her hair (she is nicknamed Big Red), size, and men's clothing she wears. Park, on the other hand, is the only Asian in school. They ride together on the bus after Park is the only one who offered Eleanor a seat. She reads his comics over his shoulder and eventually that starts a friendship. However, Eleanor comes from a broken home with an abusive stepfather and four younger siblings. Being in a relationship is essentially not allowed, so she has to hide her budding romance from her family.

Prodigy (Legend #2) by Marie Lu

This book picks up where Legend leaves off, if I could only remember where Legend had left me. As I have discussed in previous reviews of sequels of books, this one did not do a good job of connecting this book to the previous one and refreshing my memory of what had occurred. However, I was able to piece it together enough to still enjoy the book. Day and June are trying to escape to the Colonies, who they believe will keep them safe. Meanwhile, the new elector, Anden, is struggling to keep the Republic together and needs Day's endorsement for the people of the Republic to trust him. Will Day choose to endorse Anden or go to the Colonies to be safe with June?

Scarlet (Lunar Chronicles #2) by Marissa Meyer

I actually went to see Marissa Meyer and Malina Lo speak at Wordstock in early October! I have never gone to see an author speak, and it was a very interesting experience. They talked about their inspirations (such as the retelling of fairy tales in a futuristic, dystopian world) and future works. But I digress...

Scarlet is a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood (which Marissa told us the actual Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale, which is actually very creepy in nature). Scarlet meets a street fighter named Wolf while trying to find out who kidnapped her grandmother, where they were holding her, and how to get her out. Meanwhile, our protagonist from the first Lunar Chronicles, Cinder, needs to escape her prison cell so she will not be deported back to Luna and killed by her aunt who wants to marry Prince Kai and rule Earth.

The third installment, Cress, releases next year and is based on the story of Rapunzel.

The Elite (The Selection #2) by Kiera Cass

The Elite is the second book in The Selection trilogy. It continues where The Selection left off: with six girls remaining trying to win Maxon's heart. However, America is still deciding if she loves Maxon or Aspen, one of the guards that she knew from before the Selection began. As she struggles, both men show her what they can give her. Aspen can give her security now that he is a 2, but Maxon offers her a princess crown and the possibility of changing their country for the better. The final installment, The One, will be released next year.

Outpost (Razorland #2) by Ann Aguirre

This book picks up where Enclave left off: Deuce, Stalker, Tegan, and Fade living in Salvation and trying to find a life there. There is a love triangle afoot, as well. Fade thinks that Deuce likes Stalker, while Deuce likes Fade (and Fade likes Deuce), while Stalker also likes Deuce, but she does not reciprocate that. The Freaks/Muties are also becoming smarter to the point of understanding the fields that the Salvationites plant are imperative to their survival and thus destroy them. This leads to an outpost (hence the title) being set up to protect the fields. Deuce, Stalker, and Fade go on a recon mission at night to find out where the Freaks/Muties are and they discover that they have their own little semi-civilization like Salvation. They return to the outpost and tell Longshot (the leader of the outpost who also rescued them and brought them to Salvation) what they saw, and even though he believes them, he does not decide to do anything about it. Later, both Fade and another outpost soldier are captured in the night, leading Deuce, Stalker, and two other soldiers on a mission to rescue them. I thought this book picked up really well from where Enclave left off and I could figure out/piece together what had happened in the end of the first book. I am looking forward to the third installment, Horde, to come out later this year.

Gorgeous by Paul Rudnick

Gorgeous is about a girl named Becky Randle who just graduated high school. Her mother dies and while she is going through her things, she finds a jewelry ring box that has a phone number in the bottom of it. She calls the number and Tom Kelly, a famous fashion designer, answers it. Becky flies out to New York to meet him and he presents her with an offer: to make her the most beautiful woman in the world. She agrees to it and he makes it happen via three dresses: a red one, a white one, and a black one. She isn't sure how this can be accomplished since she is rather plain looking, but when she wears the red dress, she transforms into Rebecca: a taller, thinner, and more beautiful version of herself that even models are jealous of her. At the end of their first night out, he tells her that she can stay looking like this for the rest of her life if she falls in love and gets married within a year. I honestly really did not like this book. I thought it was too supernatural (something I was not expecting from it), at least for my tastes, and also pretty predictable.

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

I really enjoyed this book and realized it is the fourth road trip book I have read in about two years. The story revolves around Colin Singleton who has just been dumped by the nineteenth Katherine he has ever dated. He is really hurt by this, so he and his friend Hassan convince Colin's parents that it would be best if they went on a road trip and "find" themselves which really means get Colin over Katherine. They end up in Gutshot, Tennessee (they originated in Chicago), living with a girl named Lindsey (who is dating a guy named Colin, nicknamed "TOC" [the other Colin]) and her mom Hollis while they take down a history of the town given by the residents. The original Colin is trying to figure out why his relationships with Katherines always end and why he is the one who always gets dumped. He is on a mission to create a mathematical formula that predicts relationships, except there is hitch after hitch on why it does not work. Does Colin ever figure out the formula and get over Katherine XIX?

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

This book revolves around 8 year old Scout, her brother Jem, and her father Atticus while he defends a black man that allegedly raped a white woman. It is definitely a coming-of-age story where Scout realizes that everything is not as she thought it was and how people behave in unexpected ways. Also, there is a "mysterious" boarded-up house where "Boo" Radley supposedly lives. When Scout and Jem walk home from school, sometimes they find "gifts" in the crook of a tree, such as two pennies, a pack of gum, and a broken watch.

Reached (Matched #3) by Ally Condie

This is the third book in the Matched trilogy. The Rising has come and to win followers, they released a deadly flu virus into the Society's water. They have a vaccine and everyone who gets it is healed, but soon the virus mutates and they do not have a vaccine against the mutated form. It becomes a race against time to find a cure and it becomes even more urgent when Ky falls ill. But there are people working against the Rising to make sure as many people as possible die. Will a cure be found in time to save Ky?

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

I was on the hold list for what seemed like forever at the library! Finally, I got the book and it only took me a couple of days to read since it is so short. The story centers around Charlies, an introvert who is beginning his first year of high school at the start of the novel. He is shy and unpopular and concerned about how and where he will fit in, along with concerned about his sister who always seems to be choosing the worst guys. Early in the school year, he becomes friends with Samantha (Sam) and Patrick, who are step-siblings. Charlie soon has a crush on Sam, but she is very emphatic that nothing will ever happen and she will not see him "that way." Charlie goes on to date a girl named Mary Elizabeth, who is part of the group, but in a game of Truth or Dare, he ends up kissing Sam, who he believes is the "prettiest girl in the room," leading to an end to his relationship with Mary Elizabeth. As the year progresses, Sam dates a guy named Craig, but eventually Charlie learns that Craig's cheated on Sam the entire time they dated. Craig is pressured by his friend Peter to end it with Sam since she is taking the relationship a lot more seriously than him, and he does. Charlie also mentions his Aunt Helen rather fondly throughout the book, but an incident awakens the true memories of Aunt Helen, which land him in the psych ward. His friends and family all come to visit him while he is in the hospital, and he is eventually released.

Extras (Uglies #4) by Scott Westerfeld

I finished Specials and read this in the hopes that it would tie up some loose ends that it left hanging (and perhaps give me a better ending, too). Alas, I was disappointed. This is set three years after the end of Specials where the world is free of the operation that occurs to make everyone pretty (and turn stupid) when they turn 16 years old. Everything had also changed so it became a "reputation economy," where people receive merits (money) based on their popularity (how many times their name is said). People who are not above a certain threshold are considered "Extras." Aya is an Extra who desperately wants to be popular, so she ends up following a group called the Sly Girls in the hopes of "kicking" the story and becoming famous. Following them ends up to be more than she bargained for and leads to a bigger story than she could have ever imagined when they see what appear to be aliens moving things from a train to inside a mountain. These things end up being large metal cylinders that are believed will be used to attack the city. Who are these aliens? And will they really attack? What about when Tally and David said they'd protect everyone at the end of Specials?

Specials (Uglies #3) by Scott Westerfeld

Tally has become a Special, hunting the Smokies who had helped her and Zane before they were discovered with the Smokies. Now everything revolves around finding the New Smoke. But Tally loves Zane and wants him to become a Special just like her, but suffers from the brain damage caused by the pills they took as Pretties. To monitor Zane, the city has outfitted him with an unbreakable necklace, so to prove how Special he really is, Shay and Tally break into an armory to steal something that will destroy the necklace, but inadvertently destroy the armory, making the city believe that they are under attack from a different city or the Smokies. Tally and Shay release Zane, who then go with a pack of Crims to the New Smoke. Both Tally and Shay track them, but soon Shay goes ahead of the Crims while Tally stays to make sure Zane is okay. Eventually, the New Smoke is reached and instead of being a small camp in the wilderness, is a whole city. Tally finds that Shay and the other Specials that are with her (known as Cutters) have taken something to cure them of their icy mindedness. Tally doesn't want to change and fights it, and leaves the city to go back to Special Circumstances and confesses who really destroyed the armory. Does Tally ever find her place in society? 

Pretties (Uglies #2) by Scott Westerfeld

After Tally turns Pretty, she enjoys the Pretty lifestyle in New Pretty Town: parties all the time, getting drunk, doing mindless Pretty things. But a visitor from her past comes to her during one of the parties and tells her that something is hidden in a room. She goes on a hunt with Zane, one of her new Pretty friends, and discover two white pills and a note she had written to herself before she decided to turn Pretty. Zane and Tally split the pills, each taking one, and soon their minds are changed and everything is more bubbly. Other people in their clique (known as the Crims), notice the change and want to know how else they can be bubbly and soon everything becomes a competition for who can become more bubbly. Eventually, the Crims do the most bubbly thing ever: they break through a hovering ice rink, which sends a signal to the Smokies that the pills did work. However, Zane has come down with terrible headaches and Special Circumstances are breathing down Tally and Zane's necks, leading them to be trapped in bracelets they can't escape, no matter how much weight they lose. With Zane's increasing headaches, will they be able to escape back to the New Smoke for a cure for Zane or will they end up trapped in New Pretty Town forever?

Uglies (Uglies #1) by Scott Westerfeld

This book centers around Tally, an Ugly who yearns to be a Pretty and cannot wait until her 16th birthday when that will happen. The youngest of all her friends, she is the last to have the operation that makes her beautiful: perfect doe eyes, full lips, hair that lies flat. But she meets Shay (with whom she shares a birthday) who tells her that being Pretty is not what it seems and tries to convince her to run away to a place called the Smoke, where people never have the Pretty operation. Tally, appalled at the thought of remaining Ugly for the rest of her life, balks and decides to remain in Uglyville. But the day of her birthday and right before her operation takes place, Special Circumstances takes Tally to the outskirts of town and tells her that she has to go to the Smoke before she can be turned into a Pretty. She eventually relents, traveling by hoverboard for days on end, searching for the Smoke from clues that Shay had left her in a note. Eventually she finds it and is initially appalled by them: full of Uglies, chopping down trees, eating wild animals, who would ever want to live that way? But slowly she learns more about the Smoke and the truth about what happens when you turn Pretty. She decides to stay in the Smoke and hurls the necklace that she was supposed to use to summon Special Circumstances into a fire. Unbeknownst to her, she accidentally calls Special Circumstances, who find the Smoke. Does Tally and her Smokey friends escape, or do they all turn into bubbleheaded Pretties?

Cinder (Lunar Chronicles #1) by Marissa Meyer

This book is about Cinder, a cyborg, who is living in New Beijing after World War IV. She has a stepmother and two stepsisters (much like Cinderella) who are getting prepared for a ball for Prince Kai. One day, when she is at her shop in the market square, Kai approaches her and wants her to fix his robot. She agrees to it, and meanwhile, her stepsister Peony comes down with letumosis, something similar to the Black Plague and has no known cure. With Peony sick, Cinder's stepmother Adri enlists Cinder to be tested for a cure for letumosis, knowing full well that all those tested never live to tell about it. While in the lab, it is discovered that Cinder is immune. She finds out that she is really Lunar, from a colony on the moon, but it is illegal for Lunar to live on earth. Knowing that this must be kept a secret, and despite Kai's persistent courting of her, she decides to run away, but then finds out imperitive information that Kai must know. Will she be able to get to Kai in time or will she go through with her plan to run away to Europe?

The Selection (The Selection #1) by Kiera Cass

Cass writes a story about America, who lives in a post-World War IV United States, now known as Illea, where there is a caste system in place ranging from Ones to Eights. America is a Five, which is the artist caste, and is in love with Asper, who is a Six, and would be a union that would be frowned upon if it came to fruition. The prince if Illea, Maxon, has come to age where he must find a princess. Any girl aged 16-20 can enter their name into the Selection. Thirty-five finalists are chosen, America being one of them, even though she has no intention of becoming a princess and is only doing it to help her family and because she promised Aspen she would, before he broke up with her after realizing that he could never provide the life for her that he thinks she deserves. America makes it known to Maxon on the first night in the palace that she is not interested in him, but does not want to return home to face the heartache left by Aspen. Maxon keeps her in the Selection and they become friends, with America serving as his insider with information on the other girls. Slowly, America takes a liking to Maxon, who is falling for her hard. But rebel forces keep attacking the palace, leading to a draft. Aspen is drafted and is stationed at the palace, which reignites their romance. Who will America choose?

 

Book 2, The Elite, will be released on April 23, 2013.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Miss Peregrine #1) by Ransom Riggs

I really enjoyed this story. I actually finished it a couple of weeks ago, but have been tardy in posting my review... Anyway, it is about a boy named Jacob that seems most ordinary, but has a slightly obsessed grandfather who has a stockpile of weapons and believes that some sort of creatures are after him. Jacob knows of his grandfather's tall tales about when he lived in Wales and the people he knew and the adventures he went on. But then one day, his grandfather is drug to the forest behind his home and killed. Jacob witnesses the murder and sees that it is the same sort of creature that his grandfather always talked about, and is struck with horror. Jacob slips into a depression and his parents send him to a psychiatrist who suggests that he go to Wales to see if the rest of his grandfather's stories were true, especially the one about a house on a hill run by a Miss Peregrine. He and his father go to Wales on what is assumed to be a witch hunt, but Jacob soon learns the truth of his grandfather, Miss Peregrine, and the creatures that killed him. Unfortunately, Miss Peregrine and her wards are being saught by the creatures and Jacob is the only one that can help him. Will he choose to stay with Miss Peregrine and her wards or return to America with his father? Lately, I have been itching to go on a trip or adventure, and this book helped to satisfy those desires.