Category: YA Sci Fi

Reviews, YA Historical, YA Sci Fi

Book Review: The Girl from Everywhere by Heidi Heilig

Liz Brooks

The Girl from Everywhere (The Girl from Everywhere, #1)

GoodReads Summary:

Nix has spent her entire life aboard her father’s ship, sailing across the centuries, across the world, across myth and imagination.

As long as her father has a map for it, he can sail to any time, any place, real or imagined: nineteenth-century China, the land from One Thousand and One Nights, a mythic version of Africa. Along the way they have found crewmates and friends, and even a disarming thief who could come to mean much more to Nix.

But the end to it all looms closer every day.

Her father is obsessed with obtaining the one map, 1868 Honolulu, that could take him back to his lost love, Nix’s mother. Even though getting it—and going there—could erase Nix’s very existence.

For the first time, Nix is entering unknown waters.

She could find herself, find her family, find her own fantastical ability, her own epic love.

Or she could disappear.

My Review:

When I first started The Girl From Everywhere, I was really worried it was going to be so similar to other time-travel novels I have read.  Specifically, Passenger by Alexandra Bracken. So I went into this novel with low expectations, not really sure I would like what I found. And I have to say I was extremely wrong! Which, in this case, feels amazing.

Heidi Heilig tells a very original, profound story.She grew up in Hawaii and took the tales and folk lore she learned and wrapped them into an adventure full of beauty and paradise. Also, Heilig’s idea of time travel, using maps of different places and times is quite imaginative. I haven’t read a story where that is how time is traveled by.

Nix, the main character, was born in Hawaii, but after her mother dies, her father takes her aboard his ship. This is where she lives for 16 years. Nix, her dad, and their crew travel to different continents through time. All the while, her father is in search of a particular map, to take him back to the time before Nix’s mother died. And this is how the story twists and turns, in search of a map.

The relationship Heilig presents between Nix and Slate (her father) is one that is truthful, distant, and full of regret. She regards him with distance. She is resentful of his dependence on her because she is the “expert” with maps. And she is fearful that when he finds the map, her life will change for the worse. He wants to go back to before her mother passed away, therefore changing her current life. Will she become a different person? Or will she disappear all together? And it is very clear that Slate doesn’t think about the consequences of his actions. He is very narrow minded.

The events that take place over the course of The Girl From Everywhere really show character growth. Not only from Nix, but from her father as well as crewmate Kashmir. Kashmir is an interesting character, with a very unique background. The relationship between him and Nix is full of tension. There were moments when, had Nix said something, their friendship could have moved to be more. But because she is fretful of her father’s plan, and her own longing to escape Slate, she keeps Kashmir as a distance as well. She is mostly worried about losing him, and becoming her father. She is witness to what happens when you lose the love of your life.

The Girl From Everywhere is refreshing and envisioning. I thoroughly enjoyed the intertwining relationships between all the characters.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Blog Signature

Reviews, YA Sci Fi

Mini Reviews #2: Control by Lydia Kang and The Archived by Victoria Schwab

Veronica Porras (TTB)

Control_front_cvr2

Goodreads Summary:

When a crash kills their father and leaves them orphaned, Zel knows she needs to protect her sister, Dyl. But before Zel has a plan, Dyl is taken by strangers using bizarre sensory weapons, and Zel finds herself in a safe house for teens who aren’t like any she’s ever seen before—teens who shouldn’t even exist. Using broken-down technology, her new friends’ peculiar gifts, and her own grit, Zel must find a way to get her sister back from the kidnappers who think a powerful secret is encoded in Dyl’s DNA.

A spiraling, intense, romantic story set in 2150—in a world of automatic cars, nightclubs with auditory ecstasy drugs, and guys with four arms—this is about the human genetic “mistakes” that society wants to forget, and the way that outcasts can turn out to be heroes.

Review:

tumblr_inline_ml88od3Tl81qz4rgp

O. M. G. Those three letters sum up this book in its entirety. I LOVED it. Absolutely, Freaking, Loved it. This book makes my science fiction inner nerd happy. All the science and the abnormal qualities most of the characters had made me love it even more. At times I felt like I was in the future X-men world. I don’t want to give anything away about this book (which is why I’m writing this tiny review on it), but I will tell you to read it. I devoured this book in a few hours and it has stayed with me. That reminds me, I should go see when the sequel is coming out…

Rating: 4 out of 5

 

10929432

Goodreads Summary:

Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books.

Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures that only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive.

Da first brought Mackenzie Bishop here four years ago, when she was twelve years old, frightened but determined to prove herself. Now Da is dead, and Mac has grown into what she once was, a ruthless Keeper, tasked with stopping often—violent Histories from waking up and getting out. Because of her job, she lies to the people she loves, and she knows fear for what it is: a useful tool for staying alive.

Being a Keeper isn’t just dangerous—it’s a constant reminder of those Mac has lost. Da’s death was hard enough, but now her little brother is gone too. Mac starts to wonder about the boundary between living and dying, sleeping and waking. In the Archive, the dead must never be disturbed. And yet, someone is deliberately altering Histories, erasing essential chapters. Unless Mac can piece together what remains, the Archive itself might crumble and fall.

In this haunting, richly imagined novel, Victoria Schwab reveals the thin lines between past and present, love and pain, trust and deceit, unbearable loss and hard-won redemption.

Review:

tumblr_mdxaafRMd31rttthv

I want to hug this book. Ugh. I can’t even. This book is haunting. It is exhilarating. It makes you see the world in a whole other way. Like it makes me like turn into the Southern California girl I have buried deep inside me and horrible grammar and words that add nothing to the sentence (ex: like) spew out of me. But my Dear Lord, I don’t even know what to really say about this book except, please read it. I can’t explain it. I won’t. Just read it. PLEASE.

tumblr_inline_mquvylO6Pv1qz4rgp

Rating: 5 out of freaking 5

Reviews, YA Sci Fi

Book Review: Crewel by Gennifer Albin

Veronica Porras (TTB)

81UiGwVZN-L

Goodreads Summary:

Incapable. Awkward. Artless. That’s what the other girls whisper behind her back. But sixteen-year-old Adelice Lewys has a secret: She wants to fail. Gifted with the ability to weave time with matter, she’s exactly what the Guild is looking for, and in the world of Arras, being chosen to work the looms is everything a girl could want. It means privilege, eternal beauty, and being something other than a secretary. It also means the power to manipulate the very fabric of reality. But if controlling what people eat, where they live, and how many children they have is the price of having it all, Adelice isn’t interested.

Not that her feelings matter, because she slipped and used her hidden talent for a moment. Now she has one hour to eat her mom’s overcooked pot roast. One hour to listen to her sister’s academy gossip and laugh at her dad’s jokes. One hour to pretend everything’s okay. And one hour to escape.

Because tonight, they’ll come for her.

Crewel is the first book in Gennifer Albin’s gripping young adult series.

My Initial Thoughts:

I’d never heard of Ms. Gennifer Albin which nowadays is probably a good thing for authors. It’s rare when you’re a blogger and you NOTHING about the author. News travels fast in this industry.

Review:

(Warning: This entire review may feel discombobulated, but forgive me for giving you such quality. I don’t think I can make I more coherent one though. This book just left me…. *mind blown*)

Woah… this was an intense book. It’s been at least a little over a week since I finished it and I still can’t fully digest it. The world Ms. Albin created is so different yet it almost seems plausible that it messes with your head so much that you’re left stupidly smiling yet utterly confused. Confused in a good way though.

The entire book is in Adelice’s point of view and in a short amount of time in the beginning we come in contact with so many characters that at first it’s a little overwhelming. At a certain point you feel like there is a love triangle coming on and you groan to yourself, but trust me, it’s not a love triangle and it get’s better once you figure out what’s really going on. muahahahhaha

This is 100% a young adult science fiction novel. I don’t even think we find out what year it is so I can’t even say it has a little bit of dystopian in the mix at this point, but I can assure you that we will know by the end of the second book (or at least I hope we do).

What I really liked about this book was the entire concept of weaving. In Crewel, you can weave something in or out of existence. Very few are those that have that gift. The main character is one of those few that can weave and what is so amazing about her is that she can weave without having to use the special weaving board provided by Arras (whom is the country/government).

This is a pretty solid first book in the series and I cannot wait to pick up the second book. 🙂

Rating: 4/5

Reviews, YA Sci Fi

Book Review: Unraveling (Unraveling #1) by Elizabeth Norris

Veronica Porras (TTB)

12157365

Goodreads Summary:

Sixteen-year-old Janelle Tenner is used to having a lot of responsibility. She balances working as a lifeguard in San Diego with an intense academic schedule. Janelle’s mother is bipolar, and her dad is a workaholic FBI agent, which means Janelle also has to look out for her younger brother, Jared.

And that was before she died…and is brought back to life by Ben Michaels, a mysterious, alluring loner from her high school. When she discovers a strange clock that seems to be counting down to the earth’s destruction, Janelle learns she has twenty-four days to figure out how to stop the clock and save the planet.

What I Like:

I started reading this book assuming it was more contemporary or murder mystery. I didn’t understand why it was in the adventure/fatansy/sci fi section at Barnes and Nobles until things started getting freaky. It is because of the vague assumptions I made about the content inside this book that made it ten times better for me. I loved the roller-coaster feeling I had the whole time I was reading it. It got nerdy, it got very science fiction on me, and I loved it. The first thirty pages were amazing. It set the tone for the rest of the book. Elizabeth Norris is a talented writer.

I really liked the main character Janelle because she took the attention of herself. The first half of the book we really got to understand and know the secondary characters and even though the story is being told through Janelle, like I said before, she took the attention of herself and it really helped with the character development. I know that may sound weird, but trust me on this.

I liked the plot and the world Ms. Norris created. The story freaked me out a little bit because it is set in today’s world and the things that happened could very well happen today. Ms. Norris knows how to mess with your mind.

What I Dislike:

I have zero negative comments about this book.

Overall:

I loved Unraveling. The characters, the world, the plot, I loved it all. I highly recommend this to anyone.

Rating: 5/5