A Final Champion

June and Day were born on opposite ends of the social spectrum, but they were drawn to each other. They have made sacrifices to save their country, and now that it is officially on the brink of complete destruction, they must sacrifice even more in Champion, Marie Lu's conclusion to the Legend series. 

They haven't seen each other. June has been elected the Princeps Elect. She is loyal to Anden, who carries the weight of his father's abuse of power, but is himself a smart and capable leader. But she thinks of Day. Often. Day is a military official. He has accomplished his one goal: Eden is safe. But now Day is the one suffering. With a fast approaching expiration date, Day knows the upcoming peace treaty between the Colonies and the Republic is more important than ever. Each time Day pushes himself too far, he goes to the brink of finally succumbing to what is killing him. But the one person he wants to spend his final moments with doesn't even know he is dying: June. 

Meanwhile, a plague worse than ever before breaks out in the Colonies. While they had a precarious peace with the Republic before, the new illness is violent and deadly, and it has led to a new development. Peace will never be achieved when the Republic sits back and watches the Colonies die. Invasion of the Republic is imminent, but Anden still believes he can find a way to stop everything. If he develops a cure, he can halt the invasion and return to the peace treaty. There is one very big problem. Day's brother Eden is the cure, and Day won't allow anyone to hurt Eden ever again. 

The most interesting part of this series has always been Day and June. In an easier, more cookie-cutter novel, we would see them battling back to back, taking on the world in any way possible. But that is a paint-by-numbers kind of a story, and Lu wants to give you more. Instead, the path Day and June have traveled is bumpy and fraught with secrets and lies. Yet their connection is undeniable. Both have a deep connection to each other, but their duty to their families and their countries are put before their own desires. It was poetic and heartbreaking all at once, and it made this story as un-cookie-cutter as you could get. 

When you have been reading a series since its inception, you have an investment. You want to see an ending the characters deserve and have earned, but you also want the author to surprise you. How can they give you both? Well, Marie Lu found a way. This isn't the conclusion I ever expected, but it was respectful to the losses both Day and June had suffered, and it was a story that did them both, and their relationship, justice. As it began to unfold, I am not going to lie, I was angry. How could you do this to Day and June after everything they have been through?! But it was almost as if Lu was whispering through the pages, "Shhhh. Calm down and have patience." And I did. And it  was fabulous. This is a series young adults and adults alike would love, because Lu has a plan. And it's one heck of a plan!

A Sky on Fire

Kids are resourceful. In extreme circumstances, I have no doubt kids could find a way to survive all on their own. In Emmy Laybourne's Monument 14, we saw them find a way to survive in a Greenway, but in the sequel, Sky on Fire, the group splits up in their fight to survive. 

As type O's, if Dean and Astrid breathe the compounds NORAD released into the air, they will become raving psychopaths hellbent on killing anything in their way. Therefore, they decided to stay behind and protect the little kids while Dean's brother Alex and the others took the schoolbus that saved them to the Denver Airport in the hopes of finding people willing to help rescue those left behind. But neither group experiences anything they expected.

Outside the Greenway, things are bad. A strange white mold eats rubber and has destroyed cars, making their bus a commodity for anyone within earshot. Add to that the raving lunatics and the fact that Josie lied to them about her blood type. With one whiff of the air, she becomes her own raving lunatic in the close quarters of the bus. Meanwhile, back at the store, Astrid and Dean are experiencing their own horrors. With crazy people trying to break into their stronghold one after another, they realize how defenseless they really are. Meanwhile, inside, they can barely hold things together with the little kids, infections, and people determined to get in. Both groups are in the middle of the battle of their lives, but will anyone make it out alive?

This series is an odd mixture of fairly mature circumstances with a relatively low reading level. Therefore, it is a good series for an older student who is also a struggling reader. The maturity of the subject matter includes a lot of murder, sex, and pretty scary situations, but the short nature of the stories and easy reading level makes them a perfect option for a reader who doesn't want to read a "kids" book, but needs a lower level story. Also, this series could easily serve as a bridge into more complex, mature post-apocalyptic and dystopic stories.

Overall, I like the story, but sometimes the kids make some really stupid mistakes. I know that is most realistic, but still, I would love it if they had a learning curve about trusting people! How many times do you have to get attacked, beaten, almost raped, and robbed before you figure out to not trust anyone??!! I like the fact that these books end with some finality, but still lead directly into the next story. I don't think these are the absolutely best PA stories out there, but they are quick and a lot of fun to read, which gives them a permanent space on the shelf of my classroom!

New Perspective on Nightshade

If you loved the Nightshade series as much as I did, you are also probably just as anxious for the prequel series to be released in August. I know this little eBook came out before the final book in the series, Bloodrose, but it can really be read anywhere after the first book, Nightshade. However, it gives vital information about the second book, Wolfsbane, making it best read after the second book. Still, having finished the final book in the original series, it wasn't a waste for me. It gave a different perspective to a part of the story that was hard to read about and hard to accept.

When Callie runs away with Shay, she knows she has left behind. What she doesn't know is she has abandoned her brother to a fate worse than any of them could imagine- a life without his wolf half. Captured by the Keepers and the other pack, Ansel is left to suffer both his own grief and the torture at the hands of the Keepers and wraiths. But they have a solution for him that might return everything he lost. The only catch is he has to betray the one person he loves unconditionally.

This bridge story from Ansel's perspective really illuminated things for me. I remember this part of the series when Ansel betrayed Callie, but seeing it from his perspective makes you pity him, not want to smack him silly like I did when his motives were first exposed. I liked this little novella a lot and was happy Cremer put it out there. It satisfied my need for Nightshade at least for a few moments! Now I REALLY need the next series to start!

A Monument to Apocalyptic Fiction

You know what you would say to your loved ones if it was the last time you were going to see them, but what if you didn't know that time was the last time? In Monument 14, Emmy Laybourne takes a group of kids from a school bus (or two), throws them into a new, very dangerous world, and hopes they can survive.

Dean boards the high school bus and his younger brother, Alex, gets on the elementary and middle school bus. They head off on just another day of school and routine, but this isn't just another day. On their way to school a freak hailstorm takes out Dean's bus. The driver is dead, as are some kids who were trapped and beaten to death by hail, but the remaining kids know they have to get out. Through the heroics of an ancient bus driver, the surviving kids find themselves trapped in the Greenway department store. When the bus driver heads off to find help, she leaves the kids behind, not knowing just how alone they will soon be. 

The hail storm was just the beginning of the after effects of a giant tsunami. When a major earthquake hits, the kids assume they made it through until a chemical spill from NORAD. The chemical reacts differently in people with different blood types, killing some, sterilizing others, and making another percent of the population go stark raving mad and murderous. The kids are lucky enough that the emergency gates on the store closed, sealing them inside, but what is on the outside wants to come in. While the kids have enough supplies to survive in the department store, there are scarier things out there than they can imagine safe inside the store. 

First, let me just assure you that there are no zombies going on here. Homicidal psychopaths, yes. Zombies? No. I wanted to get that out in the open, because the description of the people affected by the chemical sounded to me a lot like zombies, but they aren't. They are alive, reasoning, thinking loons who want to tear everyone and everything apart they can get their hands on. Scarier than the zombies if you ask me! But nevertheless, no zombies here. 

The story is quite interesting story, especially on the heels of a similar story I just read called No Safety in Numbers. They are very different books as this is apocalyptic and that was a terrorist plot that led to a quarantine, but there are still some similarities, like being trapped in a mall/department store. The thing that sets this story apart is the lack of adults. The older kids try to hold things together, but since they are children themselves, it doesn't always work. Some kids started dipping into the pharmacy, others gorged themselves on candy and ice cream. A couple of the older kids paired off, little kids wanted their mommies, and all of them grew more and more scared. It actually felt very real in regards to how the kids all reacted to the situation. 

My one skepticism surrounded the chemical agent released from NORAD during the quake. I am not sure how a chemical could react so differently based on blood type, but I have learned not to question these things too much and to give fiction a little wiggle room for creative license. So I let that go and just enjoyed the story. It was written in first person narrative and sometimes the story felt very much like it was slipping out of the mouth of a young adult... perhaps a little too much at times? With this writing style comes a few choppy sentences or disjointed thoughts where I had to go back and reread to get the full gist of what was happening. But all in all, it wasn't distracting most of the time, so I was able to really enjoy the story. I found the story exciting and engaging and really want to know what happens next. I desperately hope this is the beginning of a series because otherwise Laybourne's "Got some 'splainin' to do!" The ending had a feeling of finality while still being abrupt and leaving you hanging. I don't know how she concluded the story that way, but she did, and it left me dying to know more!

The Good Guys are Never Who they Seem

When we last left Calla, she was trying to save Shay from being sacrificed at her bonding to Ren. In their attempt to escape, they were trapped in his house by Incubi, Succubi, and a whole other host of creepy creepers. Just before they were about to be overcome, the Searchers, the very group Calla was raised to fear, fight, and kill, comes to their rescue and take Calla and Shay back to their base. In Wolfsbane, Andrea Cremer gives a whole new meaning to plot twist.

Just when you thought you knew who the bad guys were, you find out you were wrong. The Searchers tell Calla and Shay they are really the good guys who have been fighting the evil Keepers all their lives. The Searchers respect magic and the natural way, when the Keepers defy nature every day. In particular, by creating the Guardians. They want to gain the trust of Calla's pack because having the Guardians on their side is the only way they can stop the evil of the Keepers. But when Calla travels back to Vail, the group is attacked and she quickly realizes the packs have been changed. Nightshades are following the Bane alpha, Ren's father, and her pack is nowhere to be found.

When Calla's brother Ansel arrives after being accidentally shot by Searchers, Calla manages to heal him with her pack blood. Unfortunately, Ansel is more damaged than she originally thought- as punishment, his wolf was permanently removed, stripping him of being a Guardian. Ansel is inconsolable and Calla doesn't know how to help him. When he tells her of the horrors her pack has suffered since she ran away, Calla is determined to help him. A group of Searchers volunteer to come along to help, but what they find is not a full and willing pack awaiting them. Now Calla must find a way to reconcile with losing half her pack, her feelings for both Ren and Shay, and how they all plan to work together to save the world from the Keepers.

This was an excellent follow up novel and sets you right up for the final book in the trilogy. The Searchers added a great group of supporting characters, both with their own problems, love triangles, and reasons for being involved in the supernatural war. Some are serious, some hilarious, but they really added to the story. One really amazing thing I noticed in this story and the first book were the abundance of positive gay characters. In the first book, two young male wolves are in love, but they know their keeper has the ultimate say in mating and would never pair to male wolves. In this book, two female Searchers are a couple and when one is lost on a mission, you see the real grief experienced in losing the person you love. These characters were so positive and just a natural part of the story instead of being forced in for a specific objective. It made me so happy! These healthy, loving relationships are great for young adults to read about. While the stories about the negative end of being a gay teen are so vitally important to our young readers for empathy, I really like seeing happy couples who love each other. Cremer did a beautiful job with them in her story, and I think it is an invaluable exposure for young adults.

The reading and age level for this book is similar to the first book. There is a little more intimacy in this story, as Calla is no longer bound by the Keepers' rules, but it still isn't overdone or gratuitous. The story is exciting enough to keep any reader engaged and make them crave the next book. I know I am!