The Weight of Souls (ARC review)

The Weight of Souls | Bryony Pearce
YA, Urban Fantasy, Paranormal, Mythology

Characters ★★★★★

Setting ★★★★☆

Writing Style ★★★★☆

Sixteen year old Taylor Oh is cursed: if she is touched by the ghost of a murder victim then they pass a mark beneath her skin. She has three weeks to find their murderer and pass the mark to them – letting justice take place and sending them into the Darkness. And if she doesn’t make it in time? The Darkness will come for her…

She spends her life trying to avoid ghosts, make it through school where she’s bullied by popular Justin and his cronies, keep her one remaining friend, and persuade her father that this is real and that she’s not going crazy.

But then Justin is murdered and everything gets a whole lot worse. Justin doesn’t know who killed him, so there’s no obvious person for Taylor to go after. The clues she has lead her to the V Club, a vicious secret society at her school where no one is allowed to leave… and where Justin was dared to do the stunt which led to his death.

Can she find out who was responsible for his murder before the Darkness comes for her? Can she put aside her hatred for her former bully to truly help him?

And what happens if she starts to fall for him?

REVIEW

Unique, heart-pounding, occasionally terrifying.

Oh God! It cannot end there. Don't let it be so. *falls into a bottomless pit and wails forever*

This book is so good. When I started reading it, I'll be honest, I had average expectations. I was only reading it because I loved that the cover put a person of colour at the forefront. (God I love the cover. And now the hieroglyphs make sense!) Also ghosts? I'm pretty down with ghosts.

But what I wasn't expecting was to be swept into a generations-old Egyptian curse. This book is littered with vivid scenes of old Egypt, and the absolute realism that Bryony Pearce creates literally throws you there until you are in a centuries old tomb with a bunch of treasure seekers, being hunted and cursed and stalked by a vengeful Egyptian deity. It's terrifying at times. Anubis scared the ever-loving crap out of me, and I can't remember the last time I was scared by a book. Maybe when I was twelve and read Dracula?

But it's not just terror and curses. It's ghosts and hauntings! And also some pretty adorable, heart-wrenching romance. I did not plan to fall for a dead guy, but fall for a dead guy I did. The characters of this book are achingly real and Taylor is a very strong, very unique protagonist. I loved her from the minute I started reading. She had something a lot of other MCs don't, and although I can't pinpoint what it is or explain it, it made her admirable and very likable. Don't even get me started on Justin.

So for a book I requested on a whim, I was thoroughly impressed and entirely captivated by The Weight of Souls. Once I was in, I was hooked. I flew through half of the book in a day, which is a rarity for me. Another rarity? To find a book with an entirely original plot. I've never read anything close to this before, and it held me because of it.

For people who like their books with excitement, endearing ghosts, and kickass ladies, you need to read this book ASAP.

e-ARC recieved for honest review from Strange Chemistry and Netgalley. Bless you Strange Chemistry, you're my new favourite.

Book Fashion Friday: Unspoken

Wow I am shit at keeping up with these things. I'm like two, maybe three, weeks behind. Oops, sorry.

Anyway! This week's BFF is inspired by the amazing Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan. I went with the US cover because exceptionally pretty. 

The cover:

The fashion:

Fancyyyy~~ also pink! The cover is fancy and pink, the dress is fancy and pink. I have nothing else to add to this.

Available here for $398.

The Beautiful and The Cursed (Review)

The Dispossessed: The Beautiful and The Cursed | Page Morgan
YA, Historical, Urban Fantasy

Characters ★★★★★

Setting ★★★★★

Writing Style ★★★★☆

After a bizarre accident, Ingrid Waverly is forced to leave London with her mother and younger sister, Gabby, trading a world full of fancy dresses and society events for the unfamiliar city of Paris.

In Paris there are no grand balls or glittering parties, and, disturbingly, the house Ingrid’s twin brother, Grayson, found for them isn’t a house at all. It’s an abandoned abbey, its roof lined with stone gargoyles that could almost be mistaken for living, breathing creatures.

And Grayson has gone missing.

No one seems to know of his whereabouts but Luc, a devastatingly handsome servant at their new home.

Ingrid is sure her twin isn’t dead—she can feel it deep in her soul—but she knows he’s in grave danger. It will be up to her and Gabby to navigate the twisted path to Grayson, a path that will lead Ingrid on a discovery of dark secrets and otherworldly truths. And she’ll learn that once they are uncovered, they can never again be buried.

REVIEW

Entrancing, beautiful, magic.

If you listen closely you will hear the sound of my heart breaking. And look to your left, on the ground there you will see me rocking back and forth whimpering. And to your right is the shattered remnants of my e-reader because THAT ENDING WAS NOT OKAY. Goddammit, Luc, get your shit together.

But, the review! Ah yes, the review. I'll do that now.

The Beautiful and The Cursed tells the story of Ingrid and her family who have recently relocated to Paris from London following a social disgrace caused by Ingrid. To cut a long and marvelous story short, they move into an abbey adorned with gargoyles and Ingrid discovers that Luc, one of their staff, is a living gargoyle - one of The Dispossessed - charged to protect all humans in the grounds of the abbey by the Angelic Order.

Page Morgan weaves a fantastical tale of thrills and terror that will have you gasping. Her writing is beautiful; she has a way of taking historical fiction, blending it seamlessly with fantasy/supernatural, and delivering a book that isn't hindered by the details and dialogue of a time gone by, but enhanced by it. 

The characters are equally infuriating, endearing, and lovable, and I adore all of them. I was quite surprised by how attached I got to characters I weren't expecting to - Gabby, for example. I loved her tenacity and her drive, her stubborn refusal to allow anything to take her down. While Ingrid gave the story heart and compassion, Gabby gave it fight.

I love every single thing about this book. Every. Single. Thing. Is it Spring 2014 yet?

Simply put, this book will leave you breathless.

Vicious (ARC preview review)

Vicious | V. E. Schwab

Urban Fantasy, Paranormal, AWESOME.

A masterful, twisted tale of ambition, jealousy, betrayal, andsuperpowers, set in a near-future world.
Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong.
Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. 
Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end?

Gahh!! What a place to end a preview!

I only got 100 pages of this (Thank you Tor/Forge & Macmillan, and Netgalley) and as is the nature of previews I've only read a small part of this book so cannot fully review it. But I will say certain things about it.

I had a couple of issues at the beginning. It switches times a lot - some chapters are 'A Week Ago', some are 'Two Days Ago', but once you get into the story you don't even notice the changes and it becomes less of a problem. Another thing is sometimes the scenes are quite short, and with it flipping between times it has a hurried, stunted feel about it in the beginning. It's not detrimental to plot exactly but it doesn't flow as well as it could at times.

And that's all the niggly bits out of the way. Here's all the amazing stuff!

Things I adored:

It blurs the lines of superheroes/supervillains. There's no bad guys and good guys here, just guys. And I'm assuming there will be more of this in the rest of the book, which I need RIGHT NOW.

The characters are rich, deep, and individual. Can't say I've ever read a Victor or an Eli before; they're absolutely unique.

The method of becoming ExtraOrdinary! This is my favourite thing about this book. Granted at times it's a little biology-science-heavy for those of us who aren't Super Intelligent Science Folks, but it's remarkably easy to understand. So, to become an EO - someone with superhuman abilities - you must have had a NDE (Near Death Experience), meaning to become Superawesome, you've gotta die. And then come back. Easy, right? Nope. The idiot boys of Vicious almost kill themselves more times than is recommended (that is to say, it's not recommended at all. Don't do it, folks!)

Weirdly, I like how selfish Victor is. He still cares about people, and he helps them out when they need it, but he's incredibly selfish, and it's not necessarily presented in a negative way. People are selfish, that's just the reality of it, and Victor is a human being. He has flaws, and mighty big ones at that, but he's real and human. Eli, on the other hand, presents a flawless front, someone with no cracks or secrets or faults, and in the first 100 pages of this book Eli comes across as emotionless, desperate, and frankly unhinged - all the traits of a good supervillain? Well, we'll find out in the rest of the book.

To sum up: freaking awesome plot, unique characters, and a really cool concept. If I had to rate it now, I'd give it between 3.5 to 4 stars, but I suspect by the end of the book I'll be raving about it and throwing five stars to the wind.

Now someone give me the full book before I implode with desire.

Team Human (Review)

Team Human | Sarah Rees Brennan & Justine Larbalestier

YA, Urban Fantasy, Paranormal, FUN!

Characters ★★★★☆

Setting ★★★☆☆

Writing Style ★★★☆☆

Mel and Cathy and Anna have passed vampires on the street, and sat near them in cinemas, but they don’t know any. Vampires stick to their own kind, and Mel and her friends hang out with other humans—until a vampire boy in a bizarre sun-proof suit shows up at school and captures Cathy’s heart.
Mel is horrified. Can she convince Cathy that life with a vampire is no life at all? Should she? And then all her assumptions about vampires are turned on their head when she meets Kit, a boy who makes her laugh—a boy with a very unusual family history.
Will Mel’s staunch anti-vampire stance jeopardise her closest friendships? And where does Kit fit in? In the end, who will choose... Team Human?

REVIEW

This book is fun, super fun! Seriously, read it. It's such an enjoyable book.

I laughed, I didn't cry (nope, not even once!), and I was totally on Team Human as opposed to Team Vampire. And even though the book is written from the perspective of a girl completely anti-vampire, it presents the pros and cons of both remaining human and transitioning, and it makes you question your own stance on the whole thing. But don't think this is a serious, angsty novel. Oh no! It's humorous, intelligent, and (I use it again) fun.

I wasn't sure what to expect of Team Human, partly because I've only seen co-written books done well once before, and partly because vampires have been way overdone, but this put a cool twist on the whole vampire thing and told it from a different angle.

But do you know what I love about this book? The friendships. Team Human is very much about the complex relationships between friends and how the decision of one friend can affect another. I could literally jump for joy because A VAMPIRE BOOK NOT ABOUT CRAPPY ROMANCE! Okay, it's totally about crappy romance as well but that's beside the point. It's about more than 'Oh, swoon! Attractive dead guy wants to court me!' It's about how important it is to research before jumping into major decisions, it's about supporting your friends even if you disagree with their desires, it's about letting your friends fly the nest even if they are your babies.

I did not expect to find a pretty morally prolific tale between the pages of a vampire romance parody. I did not expect lessons to be learnt. I did not expect this book to be as seriously good as it was. (I'm a vampire cynic, bite me.)

To sum up: A vampire story that I haven't read a thousand times before in other books? Huh. I'm in shock.

[Oh and isn't the Francis on the cover just creepy as hell??]