Booking Through Thursday: Comprados ou Emprestados?

Não tomando em conta factores como o dinheiro ou o espaço, preferes obter cópias dos livros que lês ou pedir emprestado?

Bem... se é suposto não termos em conta o dinheiro que se gasta na obtenção de livros ou o espaço que estes ocupam então claro que prefiro ter cópias de todos os livros que leio. Afinal, se formos donos do nosso próprio exemplar podemos lê-lo quando quisermos e podemos tratá-lo como quisermos; não que eu trate mal os meus livros, mas pronto, não temos de estar preocupados em deixar vincos na espinha ou dobrar páginas, etc. Para além de que podemos reler o livro sempre que tivermos vontade de o fazer.

Com os exemplares emprestados a história é outra, claro. Temos de ter mais cuidado com os livros, temos de os ler imediatamente porque geralmente há um prazo a cumprir (como o da Biblioteca) e principalmente não temos o prazer de o ver arrumadinho na nossa estante, pronto para ser relido sempre que nos apeteça. 

Obviamente que estou a dar esta opinião não tendo em conta os factores dinheiro ou espaço que me parecem pesar bastante aquando da decisão de comprar ou pedir emprestado... enfim.

Review: A Touch Mortal

A Touch Mortal by Leah Clifford

Publisher: Greenwillow Books (2011)
Format: Hardcover | 430 pages

Genre(s): Young Adult, Urban Fantasy

Description (Goodreads): "Eden didn't expect Az.
Not his saunter down the beach toward her. Not his unbelievable pick-up line. Not the instant, undeniable connection. And not his wings.
Yeah.
So long, happily-ever-after.
Now trapped between life and death, cursed to spread chaos with her every touch, Eden could be the key in the eternal struggle between heaven and hell. All because she gave her heart to one of the Fallen, an angel cast out of heaven.
She may lose everything she ever had. She may be betrayed by those she loves most. But Eden will not be a pawn in anyone else's game. Her heart is her own.
And that's only the beginning of the end."

WARNING: Contains Spoilers!

It's books like "A Touch Mortal" that make me mad when I finish reading them. And frustrated. So very frustrated because I feel like I should have enjoyed them a lot more than I did.

The book opens with the main character, Eden, alone on a beach thinking dark thoughts. Over the last few months of her life, people seem to be forgetting her more and more. As such Eden feels depressed. And then she meets Az. He comes onto her with a corny pick-up line but she finds herself falling for him. And he for her. This all happens in the space of three or four pages (although in the book two weeks pass), so I kind of figured the romance wasn't that important to the story (I was kind of wrong) and that the author was just setting things up for the main events.

The story mostly focus on Eden, who ends up dead shortly after meeting Az, under mysterious circumstances... but she doesn't stay dead: she turns into a "Sider".

And this was where things started to go downhill. After reading the entire book it is pretty clear the author has a very definite idea of her world and its rules; she isn't just going with the flow... she has mapped the mythology of her world perfectly. The thing is, all that splendid world-building stayed... in her head (or notebook, or whatever).

As for the readers, we are confronted page after page with new concepts like "Siders" and "Touch" and the author's particular take on angels, but as the characters all know about these concepts they aren't explained properly to us; they're just mentioned. Even now I don't know exactly what "Touch" is or where "Siders" came from, why they appeared and all that. And strangely enough the newest Sider on the block, Eden, doesn't seem interested in learning the answer to these questions either... she is more into being a brat and seriously annoying.

On to "Az" and "Gabe" and all things related to them: I noticed some weird inconsistencies and fallacies in the 'system' so to speak. Apparently in Clifford's version of Heaven ("Upstairs") the "Bound" (good angels) won't know of your sins unless you confess them. It just didn't seem very logical. And don't even get me started on the name shortening... UGH!

So while I thought the author's idea had potential, I think she 'spent' her pages writing about things that... well, didn't matter that much (Eden and her boys and their life, etc) and should have probably taken up less space. She should then have used those extra pages for world-building.

I also had a major problem with Eden. I didn't like her. I thought she was bossy and bitchy most of the time, very emo and angsty (maybe searching for answers would have helped eh?). When you don't like the main character it is kind of hard to read the book. Plus there weren't any other characters that stood out except for James and Jarrod. Adam was one-dimensional and annoying, Gabriel was confusing, and Az was your typical "dark and tortured" guy. I'd have loved it if her characters were as fresh as her base idea.

As for story, as I said before, Clifford focused her writing on the wrong events while in the background it seemed like Gabriel was running around looking for answers (but did he ever find them? Who knows).

On a more positive note, I thought the writing was pretty engaging and kept me reading even as I was frowning at the story and character development.

Overall, "A Touch Mortal" could have been a new and fresh approach to angels. It is certainly different from the usual fare - "Hush Hush", "Fallen", etc - and much more imaginative. Pity the author didn't explore her idea in the best way (at least in my opinion) and gave us an unlikable (although I think she was going for "strong") heroine. Still curious about the world the author created (or had in mind), though.

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Review: The Cursed Ones

The Cursed Ones by Nancy Holder and Debbie Viguié

Publisher: Simon & Schuster (2011)
Format: Paperback | 480 pages
Genre(s): Young Adult, Urban Fantasy

Description (Goodreads): "The ultimate battle. The ultimate love.For the past two years, Jenn has lived and trained at Spain's Sacred Heart Academy Against the Cursed Ones. She is among the few who have pledged to defend humanity or die trying. But the vampires are gaining power, and the battle has only just begun. Forced to return home after death takes a member of her family, Jenn discovers that San Francisco is now a vampire strong-hold. As a lone hunter apart from her team, Jenn is isolated and at risk. She craves the company of her fighting partner, Antonio; his protection, his reassurance, his touch. But a relationship with Antonio comes with its own dangers, and the more they share of themselves, the more Jenn stands to lose. Then Jenn is betrayed by one who was once bound to protect her, causing her to doubt all she had held as true. To survive, Jenn must find the courage to trust herself - and her heart."

Warning: Contains some Spoilers!

When I first heard about this book, I thought the premise looked interesting: somehow vampires have taken over and most of the world is under their rule. A group of hunters trained by the Church at an Academy in Salamanca, Spain are one of the last hopes of Humankind.

I was really curious as how the vampires had gained power, because although it makes for an intriguing plot, it needs to be written carefully, otherwise it will look unrealistic.

Unfortunately it all seemed pretty unrealistic. I could have bought the whole part where the vampires announced their existence and claimed to be friendly; setting the trap and all. But I just didn't think the following war was believable. Apparently despite their supposed superiority in number and all their explosive and fire-related weapons Humankind... sort of lost.

The authors explain that this happened in part, because governments decided to make wild accusations against each other instead of uniting. Oh and that soldiers weren't prepared to fight vampires. I mean... soldiers weren't but a bunch of teens with some training in Krav-Maga were? Again, not buying it.

Still, if the only problem was that the basic storyline and the world-building didn't ring true I wouldn't have minded. But there were other things that bothered me.

Like the beginning of the book, for example. "The Cursed Ones" opens with a wild action scene where the Salamanca hunters are fighting fiercely for their lives against some vampires. The main character, Jenn is the one describing the scene and telling us how much in luuurve she is with her hunter partner Antonio. I must admit that it did cross my mind then that this might not be the first book in the series since the main character was already a trained hunter and had a love interest. As I continued reading though, I understood this was in fact, book 1 but that the authors had decided to skip the whole training part and the characters falling in love part and go right into the fighting. Everything you know about these two subjects comes later in the form of flashbacks, which were kind of annoying because they broke the flow of the narrative.

Another thing that annoyed me were the characters. The majority of them were uninteresting and one-dimensional despite all the little flashback chapters they had about themselves and their dark, dark pasts sprinkled throughout the book. And Jenn... she was the most uninteresting of them all as she was always whiny and weak in the key moments. Oh wait, I think Antonio may have been even worse... he was just so stereotypically dark and tortured (and vampire) that it was almost painful to read about him (every time he said "Ay, mi amor" I wanted to gag). Just call him Edward Cullen or Patch or whatever.

The only character I found mildly interesting was the priest.

Plus, I couldn't help but notice the similarities between the hunter team in this book and Buffy's group of friends in the show "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer". There was a witch, a werewolf, a tortured vampire and his love interest (who was not a slayer, but a hunter) and a couple of humans. Sounds familiar? Yeah, I thought so too. Actually the entire plot would fit nicely into a Buffy episode, except the characters of the TV show are so much better.

Overall I didn't care much for this book. It had weak world-building, almost no character development (not to mention the characters themselves were really annoying most of the time) and the story was not that original or interesting (predictable, even). The flashbacks in the middle of the normal events were irritating and as I said before, cut the flow of the narrative. There were some really well written fight scenes, but other than that this book failed to surprise or interest me in any way as it brings nothing new to the genre and the basic premise is badly explored in my opinion. Recommended only if you're a big fan of vampire books.

Note: I have received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads, but this in no way influenced my review.

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Review: Enclave (Ann Aguirre)

Enclave by Ann Aguirre

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends (2011)
Format: Hardcover | 259 pages
Genre(s): Young Adult, Science-Fiction

Description (Goodreads): "In Deuce’s world, people earn the right to a name only if they survive their first fifteen years. By that point, each unnamed ‘brat’ has trained into one of three groups–Breeders, Builders, or Hunters, identifiable by the number of scars they bear on their arms. Deuce has wanted to be a Huntress for as long as she can remember.

As a Huntress, her purpose is clear—to brave the dangerous tunnels outside the enclave and bring back meat to feed the group while evading ferocious monsters known as Freaks. She’s worked toward this goal her whole life, and nothing’s going to stop her, not even a beautiful, brooding Hunter named Fade. When the mysterious boy becomes her partner, Deuce’s troubles are just beginning.

Down below, deviation from the rules is punished swiftly and harshly, and Fade doesn’t like following orders. At first she thinks he’s crazy, but as death stalks their sanctuary, and it becomes clear the elders don’t always know best, Deuce wonders if Fade might be telling the truth. Her partner confuses her; she’s never known a boy like him before, as prone to touching her gently as using his knives with feral grace.

As Deuce’s perception shifts, so does the balance in the constant battle for survival. The mindless Freaks, once considered a threat only due to their sheer numbers, show signs of cunning and strategy… but the elders refuse to heed any warnings. Despite imminent disaster, the enclave puts their faith in strictures and sacrifice instead. No matter how she tries, Deuce cannot stem the dark tide that carries her far from the only world she’s ever known."

Warning: Contains Spoilers!

Like many other authors of speculative fiction, Ann Aguirre also decided to jump onto the "YA Dystopian/Apocaliptic fiction" hot train. With two adult series already out, Aguirre can hardly be considered a newbie in the genre, even if it's her first time writing for younger audiences. Unfortunately, after finishing "Enclave" all I could think of was that this book needed so much work it did indeed seem to have been written by a debut author.

Deuce lives underground in what's left of the subway tunnels. Her community (or "enclave") survives by dividing people into three categories according to the "job" they're going to have for the rest of their lives (job chosen at the tender age of 15). Some are Breeders (tasked with procreating and caring for the "brats"); some are Builders and spend their lives checking and improving the integrity of tunnels and fabricating tools to cover the necessities of the Enclave; and the rest are Hunters, the warriors that protect the community and travel the dark tunnels looking for food. The biggest threat to the Enclave are the "Freaks", humanoid flesh-eating monsters that constantly try to attack the underground human communities. Life is hard and people die young. This is the reality of life in the Enclave.

Rings a bell? Yep, it did remind me of something as well. Earlier this year I've read a book with a very similar plot line; it was Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky. But while Glukhovsky's carefully crafted underground world made the reading of his book interesting, "Enclave" left me cold, because the world-building wasn't nearly as good. And the story was dangerously similar.

Our heroine, Deuce, a Hunter has to assess a threat by journeying to the next underground community (just like in Metro 2033); at some point in the narrative, through an unrealistic turn of events Deuce and her mysterious partner Fade are exiled and have to go to the surface.

This is where it starts being less "Metro 2033" and more "Forest of Hands and Teeth". As they are also searching for a 'mythical' place that no-one else believes in.

So, story-wise, "Enclave" has very little to recommend it. It's been done and done better. I must admit I was impressed by certain aspects like the descriptions of the crumbling human civilization (yes, I've seen that documentary too... the one that showed how long it would take for our cities to decay if we disappeared), but other than that there is little to recommend in this book. The characters were flat and the romance unrealistic, the story was not properly developed (besides the aforementioned lack of originality) and there was one thing missing that really annoyed me (as it did in Metro 2033): Aguirre didn't explain how it happened. Why did our civilization fall. Maybe it comes in later books, though, since this is part of a series.

On the plus side, I found this book a lot easier to read than her adult ones. The writing was simpler (I guess it was a little convoluted in her other books) and the characters were likable (albeit flat and stereotypical). It was also interesting to see how much knowledge had been lost (Deuce didn't know the meaning of certain words or the use of certain objects).

Overall, this Young Adult Dystopian doesn't stand out from other works in the genre. If you are a fan of the genre though, you may want to give it a try as it is an easy and quick read, but don't expect much in the way of originality or character development.

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In my Mailbox (15)

E mais uma "In my Mailbox". Esta semana foi uma aventura, em termos de livros. Só esperava dois (Enclave e The Cursed Ones) e afinal, tenho estes todos. O Deus das Moscas e A Filha da minha Melhor Amiga comprei no Continente (ai as grandes superfícies... nem sei como tinham o Deus das Moscas!), o primeiro porque é uma edição de bolso e há muito que o queria ler e o segundo porque fiquei com bastante curiosidade após ler a crítica da Jen no Cuidado com o Dálmata. Quando vi que era o livro do dia no Continente e tinha 40% de desconto, veio também para casa! :D Quanto à Nação Prozac, foi uma total surpresa! Tinha pedido este livro no Winking Books há meses mas depois acabei por fechar a minha conta e claro, já não contava receber este livro; no fim a antiga dona ainda honrou o pedido! Yay! :D

The Cursed Ones - Nancy Holder & Debbie Viguié (ganho no Goodreads)

Enclave - Ann Aguirre

O Deus das Moscas - William Golding

A Filha da Minha Melhor Amiga - Dorothy Koomson

Nação Prozac - Elizabeth Wurtzel

E vocês o que receberam na vossa Caixa de Correio (What did you get in your mailbox this week?)?

"In my Mailbox" is hosted by The Story Siren.

Review: Eona: The Last Dragoneye

Eona: The Last Dragoneye by Alison Goodman

Publisher: Viking (2011)
Format: Hardcover | 650 pages
Genre(s): Young Adult, Fantasy 

Description (Goodreads): "In this standalone sequel to Eon: Dragoneye Reborn, Australian author Alison Goodman (Singing the Dogstar Blues) tracks the perilous adventures of Eona, the first female Dragoneye in many centuries. Unfortunately, our heroine finds no time to rest on her laurels: She and her fellow rebels are racing frantically to find a potent black folio while they also attempt to elude High Lord Sethon's pursuing army. Eona: The Last Dragoneye brims with romance, suspense, and surprises. Definitely worth recommending."

Warning: contains some spoilers for Eon.

It's a rare thing for me, but all I really want to write about "Eona" is how much I loved it. I really did. I wanted to continue reading it and at the same time didn't want it to end (so I forced myself to stop reading). For me, that's a sign I'm really enjoying the book.

Still, like most (or all) books, "Eona" isn't perfection in literary form, so there were a few things that I thought needed work. I guess I'll start with those.

As with "Eon" I thought the length of the book was excessive. Again, Goodman dragged the story. The book is huge (almost 700 pages) and not that much happens. I get many of these pages are spent with character development but it's still too long. On the plus side, the pacing was good, so although it's a big book it was never boring.

Another thing that bothered me was the ending. It was rushed and abrupt. I felt like it needed an epilogue or something. It felt incomplete.

These are my two main complaints as, in everything else "Eona" is better than it's predecessor: the story is more intricate and much less predictable with a well-constructed plot and the character development is.... amazing in most cases.

One of the exceptions would be Kygo (the Emperor) who didn't really appeal as a character; his development was weak, he didn't really seem like someone one would like to follow. Yuso's conduct was very blah and Sethon was just evil (minus the evil laugh), which was a surprise since all the other relevant characters were so layered and realistic. That Eona's adversary was a simple cookie-cutter villain disappointed me a bit.

Eona and Ido were two of the best characters ever. They were portrayed realistically and it was amazing how the author made me root for Ido right until the end of the book!

Eona still wasn't your typical selfless heroine; she spent the entire book dealing with lies, half-truths, forbidden feelings and the worst parts of herself. She had to struggle to reach that heroic mindset that comes so easily to most heroes in books. And I loved (I'm saying this world an awful lot) it; the fact that she was human and had her shortcomings.

I was kind of disappointed that, again, there wasn't much information about the dragons. But it was still a great read.

Engrossing, sensual, with great world-building and very human characters, "Eona" is an epic tale of a woman in a world of men, who is given the ultimate power. A different tale in a different fantasy world. Recommended for fans of fantasy and even people who don't like the genre much. :)

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Booking Through Thursday: Críticas

Tens o hábito de ler críticas a livros? Se sim, quais tens mais em conta? Afectam os teus hábitos de leitura ou as tuas compras?

Sim, claro. Como boa bibliófila, costumo ler críticas ou opiniões em alguns blogues e no Goodreads. No Goodreads leio uma ou outra mas centro-me mais na classificação do livro. Geralmente uso o site para ver se determinado livro está ou não bem cotado (logo, se vale a pena comprar). No blogues procuro mesmo a crítica ao livro em si e não tanto a classificação. Não leio críticas de todos os blogues, mas as que leio influenciam muitas vezes as minhas decisões de compra, pois as opiniões estão bem escritas e fundamentadas.