And about this time of every year, the line will go to the ocean pier, and walk right off into the sea, and then we fall asleep.

Salt to the Sea
Author: Ruta Sepetys
Publication Date: February 4th 2016
Publisher: Puffin
~An (unsolicited) copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~

Winter, 1945. Four teenagers. Four secrets.

Each one born of a different homeland; each one hunted, and haunted, by tragedy, lies…and war.

As thousands of desperate refugees flock to the coast in the midst of a Soviet advance, four paths converge, vying for passage aboard the Wilhelm Gustloff, a ship that promises safety and freedom.

Yet not all promises can be kept.

Inspired by the single greatest tragedy in maritime history, bestselling and award-winning author Ruta Sepetys (Between Shades of Gray) lifts the veil on a shockingly little-known casualty of World War II. An illuminating and life-affirming tale of heart and hope.

Salt to the Sea is the kind of book that sneaks up on you. Going in, I honestly don't know what I was expecting, as it says in the back, the story, the ship, is not a tragedy a lot of people know, I sure didn't. It may have taken me a while to get into Salt to the Sea, but once I did, and the inevitable happened, it snuck up on me how much I actually cared about the story, the characters, what it represents and what happened.

 I think the reason why it took me so long to get into Salt to the Sea is because of the perspectives, and how short the chapters are, we just start getting to know a character before it switches again in between, Joana, a Lithuanian, Florian, the Prussian, Emilia, the Polish, and Alfred, the German sociopath that reinforces Hitler’s ideology. But what I did love about the chapters, was how it held the suspense, we slowly get threads of their lives and secrets until they're sewn together. 

The characters, eventually (minus the sociopath) get easier to connect to, to feel for the characters and real lives that are lost to the sea in a bigger tragedy than Titanic, and honestly, I didn't know how invested I was until the end.

Salt to the Sea is a mixture of desperation and fear, a desperation and fear that nobody should have to go through or witness.

Rating: 4/5

                                

 

Up on this hill, in this uncanny house, the wind makes this place creak, the lights they are flickering.

The Haunting
Author: Alex Bell
Publication Date: February 11th 2016
Publisher: Stripes Publishing
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~

Some curses grow stronger with time…
People say that all Cornish inns are haunted, but the Waterwitch’s history is particularly chilling. Built from the salvaged timber of a cursed ship, the guest house’s dark secrets go further back than anyone can remember.
Emma is permanently confined to a wheelchair after an accident at the Waterwitch which took place when she was ten. Seven years later, she decides to return to the place where the awful event occurred. But the ancient inn still has its ghosts, and one particular spirit is more vengeful than ever…
A chilling new title in the Red Eye horror series from the author of Frozen Charlotte.

I loved Frozen Charlotte last year, creepy dolls + sociopathic tendencies = my kind of book, so I was wondering how Alex Bell was going to top it. Some things in Frozen Charlotte, (the writing, the pace) stayed the same in The Haunting, whilst other components (the characters, the creepy) were different.

So, did The Haunting top Frozen Charlotte? 

Short answer: Yes.

You want the long answer anyway? Yay. 

The Haunting, is creepy as hell, I described Frozen Charlotte as psychologically disturbing, well, I take it back, because this was so much more disturbing and scary and I had to turn the light on at one point. 

The characters are quirky and I felt more of a connection with them. Emma, in a wheelchair and with help from her assistance dog, lives a relatively normal life, she has her days, but she doesn't let it stop her from doing what she wants. She's also feisty and points out the way people react to people in a wheelchair, stereotyping. Jem and Shell are still reeling from leaving their abusive father behind, have barely any money, Jem’s protective of Shell, and Shell, is a little eccentric.

The Haunting, as I said is more disturbing and it messes with your head because you're not quite sure what's real or not or if it's mass hysteria. Since we have three perspectives, Emma's, Jem's and Shell's and a haunted place, two nonbelievers and a believer (guess who that is?) it'll have you believing one minute, and then the more you discover of their pasts, second guessing yourself. 

If you've read Frozen Charlotte, you'll remember the lack of romance, which was refreshing, and it's the same in The Haunting, even though I was hoping to have some romance in there, but it's still refreshing to have the story be focused on the plot and the emphasis on friendship and family. If you liked Frozen Charlotte, Alex Bell doesn't disappoint with The Haunting.

Rating: 4/5

                                

 

Review: Homecoming

Homecoming
Author: Kass Morgan
Publication Date: February 26th 2015
Publisher: Hodder

~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~

Weeks after crash-landing onto a rugged, nearly unpopulated planet Earth, the Hundred have managed to create a sense of order amidst their wild, chaotic surroundings. They work together to feed, shelter, and protect one another from countless dangers, including attacks by violent Earthborns. But their delicate balance comes crashing down with the arrival of new dropships from home--dropships carrying Glass and Luke, as well as the Vice Chancellor and his armed guards.


Suddenly, Bellamy must flee transgressions he thought he had left behind in space, as Wells struggles to maintain his authority on Earth. And while Clark searches for clues about her parent's whereabouts, she finds herself torn between finding them and helping the injured new arrivals in camp. Lives hang in the balance, as the Colonists find themselves fighting not just attackers from the outside, but also enemies from within

It's an end of an era. Well, for the book series, anyway. I'm sad to see it end, it's a sort of guilty pleasure for me, since if you've read the books, you know it's more character driven than Sci-Fi,or anything else. Like the show, the series goes into depth in the characters, how they change, how they think when they're in a dire situation. It's like an experiment into ones psyche. Unfortunately, for the books, there are too many characters being focused on for you to really get to know them.

Review: The Fire Sermon

The Fire Sermon
Author: Francesca Haig
Publication Date: February 23rd 2015             
Publisher: HarperVoyager   
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~ 

When Zach and I were born our parents must have counted and recounted: limbs, fingers, toes. We were perfect. They would have been disbelieving: nobody dodged the split between Alpha and Omega.
Nobody.
They were born together and they will die together.
One strong Alpha twin and one mutated Omega; the only thing they share is the moment of their death.
The Omegas live in segregation, cast out by their families as soon as their mutation becomes clear. Forced to live apart, they are ruthlessly oppressed by their Alpha counterparts.
The Alphas are the elite. Once their weaker twin has been cast aside, they're free to live in privilege and safety, their Omega twin far from their thoughts.
Cass and Zach are both perfect on the outside: no missing limbs, no visible Omega mutation. But Cass has a secret: one that Zach will stop at nothing to expose.
The potential to change the world lies in both their hands. One will have to defeat the other to see their vision of the future come to pass, but if they're not careful both will die in the struggle for power.  

I will not comment on the whole The Hunger Games meets ______(insert whatever other popular book series  that may or may not relate to this actual book, here).  I will not. You could say it has an essence of it, barely, but when you come down to it, no. You're not in districts, yes, you're separated in terms of 'class' which, is only two forms of it. Alpha or Omega. The Omega lands are not that bad either, not like District 12,  I finished reading Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta before starting this, and even that is more Hunger Games than this.  

Review: The Darkest Part of the Forest

The Darkest Part of the Forest
Author: Holly Black
Publication Date: February 5th 2015        
Publisher: Indigo
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~

Children can have a cruel, absolute sense of justice. Children can kill a monster and feel quite proud of themselves. A girl can look at her brother and believe they’re destined to be a knight and a bard who battle evil. She can believe she’s found the thing she’s been made for.

Hazel lives with her brother, Ben, in the strange town of Fairfold where humans and fae exist side by side. The faeries’ seemingly harmless magic attracts tourists, but Hazel knows how dangerous they can be, and she knows how to stop them. Or she did, once.

At the center of it all, there is a glass coffin in the woods. It rests right on the ground and in it sleeps a boy with horns on his head and ears as pointed as knives. Hazel and Ben were both in love with him as children. The boy has slept there for generations, never waking.

Until one day, he does…

As the world turns upside down, Hazel tries to remember her years pretending to be a knight. But swept up in new love, shifting loyalties, and the fresh sting of betrayal, will it be enough?

First things first The Darkest Part of the Forest is completely charming and holy crap, I ship this book. I don't know where it changed for me, from thinking a three to four, that's not a full blown five. It's my first Holly Black, so maybe it's the writing, the enchanting feel, the characters, the story itself, or the story within a story, or the magical way everything just is. I'll tell you one thing, I'm not a lover of Fae books, I've tried a few of them but they're not my thing as such. So it takes a lot, and I mean a lot for me to get into it, and I got sucked in, so you win, book. You win.