Warning: May contain spoilers for the first book. (And for this one too, although I'll at least spoiler-tag those.)I read this just about a month ago and honestly, I've forgotten most of it by now. Part of that is my fault for putting off reviews for so long, but I think the book itself is also partly to blame. It was one of those books that after I read it I was like, "Oh, that was pretty all right." But it had kind of a bad … aftertaste, after a while. That is, after a while it just kind of faded into the back of my mind and I can mostly only remember the things I disliked about it. Well anyway, luckily Wikipedia exists to refresh my memory of what happened.So, basically the Elector dies and is immediately succeeded by his son, Anden. June and Day join the Patriots, who are planning to assassinate Anden. Their plan involves getting June arrested on purpose, so that she can tell Anden about a fake assassination plan, thus distracting him from the real assassination plan. (Errm yeah, even after reading the whole book and thinking about it for a while, I still don't quite understand the logic there, but okay.) But, of course, things don't exactly go as planned. And … shenanigans happen. I do give this book props for at least having more of a plot than the first one. The plot was a bit confusing, although at least it kept moving and a lot of events happened. Even though I had numerous issues with it, I did find it very hard to put down. I think Marie Lu also does a good job of showing that not everything is so black-and-white. There isn't just "good guys" and "bad guys." Throughout the book, June and Day learn to question their positions in the revolution and if there's really a right and wrong. So, that's an aspect of the book that I really appreciated. However, there were several things that took away from the book for me. I had problems with the characters in the first book, and those problems were still present in this one. The biggest problem is that June and Day are both just … too perfect, and they're too similar to each other. It seems like they are both just super-smart and have the ability to attract everyone around them, and I don't find either of them to be particularly realistic or relatable. The problem is also that the narration switches between both of their points of view, and they're almost indistinguishable from each other in terms of voice/style. Even with the change of font/color in the text to indicate the switches, I often forgot who was narrating. And really, you shouldn't have to change the font and color of the writing in order to distinguish between different narrators. You should be able to do that within the writing itself. Or better yet, just stick to one narrator because that generally works better.Also, there was like a love … decahedron all of a sudden. I mean, of course there's June and Day. But then there was also June and Anden, and Day and Tess. And it's just like … why. You don't need to have fifty different relationships going on in a story to make it interesting. Love triangles can sometimes work, but a lot of the time––and in the case of this book, I felt––the drama is unnecessary. In a book that already has a lot of plot going on, I didn't think it needed the romantic drama aspect. It just came off as being melodramatic.There were also a couple of plot twists that I just didn't like.1. The whole thing with Thomas and Metias being in love with each other (possibly … ?). Look, of course I'm all for having LGBTQ characters in YA books (well, in all books in general). But just throwing in the "gay" thing as a plot twist just felt like an afterthought to me. There was no indication in the first book that Metias and Thomas had potentially been in love with each other, so I felt like it just came out of nowhere and that Marie Lu just made it up when she got to the sequel. Am I glad that she included gay/bisexual characters in her book? Of course. But I'm also kind of tired of YA books just having "token" gay characters, or characters who say "I'm gay" and then die, or everyone finds out they're gay after they die, etc. It's like, why can't there just be gay characters who a) are actually important and not just hanging out in the background, and b) DON'T DIE? Just saying.2. Day finding out that he's dying of a brain tumor or whatever. Ahhh … what? I mean, there was definitely foreshadow, what with him always talking about his "sudden headaches" and whatnot. I knew it was hinting at something. But it still seemed kind of dramatic to suddenly be like, "Oh yeah, Day is dying. Haha, the end." I think what pisses me off more, though, is that he doesn't tell June. And not only that, but he's just like, "Uhhh yeah, we just shouldn't be together anymore because it won't work out. Lol, bye." I mean, I understand that this really sucks for him, but that's still a pretty shitty thing to do. Also, I'm going to bet a million dollars right now that he's somehow going to find some kind of way around this and there's going to be some kind of last-minute miraculous cure for his brain and he'll survive. It would be ballsy for Marie Lu to actually kill him off, but I kind of doubt it will happen.3. Razor is actually evil, trololololo. Well what do you expect? His name is freaking Razor.Anyway! This book was at least a page-turner and I got through it quickly. I had some problems with the plot and characters, but I'll probably read the third book to find out how it all ends.
Flying Kick-a-pow!
Hi people! I'm Brigid, a college student and lover of all things book-related--writing them, reading them, reviewing them, biting them ... Yeah. I mostly read YA but I'm open to pretty much everything.
Warning: May contain spoilers for the first book. (And for this one too, although I'll at least spoiler-tag those.)I read this just about a month ago and honestly, I've forgotten most of it by now. Part of that is my fault for putting off reviews for so long, but I think the book itself is also partly to blame. It was one of those books that after I read it I was like, "Oh, that was pretty all right." But it had kind of a bad … aftertaste, after a while. That is, after a while it just kind of faded into the back of my mind and I can mostly only remember the things I disliked about it. Well anyway, luckily Wikipedia exists to refresh my memory of what happened.So, basically the Elector dies and is immediately succeeded by his son, Anden. June and Day join the Patriots, who are planning to assassinate Anden. Their plan involves getting June arrested on purpose, so that she can tell Anden about a fake assassination plan, thus distracting him from the real assassination plan. (Errm yeah, even after reading the whole book and thinking about it for a while, I still don't quite understand the logic there, but okay.) But, of course, things don't exactly go as planned. And … shenanigans happen. I do give this book props for at least having more of a plot than the first one. The plot was a bit confusing, although at least it kept moving and a lot of events happened. Even though I had numerous issues with it, I did find it very hard to put down. I think Marie Lu also does a good job of showing that not everything is so black-and-white. There isn't just "good guys" and "bad guys." Throughout the book, June and Day learn to question their positions in the revolution and if there's really a right and wrong. So, that's an aspect of the book that I really appreciated. However, there were several things that took away from the book for me. I had problems with the characters in the first book, and those problems were still present in this one. The biggest problem is that June and Day are both just … too perfect, and they're too similar to each other. It seems like they are both just super-smart and have the ability to attract everyone around them, and I don't find either of them to be particularly realistic or relatable. The problem is also that the narration switches between both of their points of view, and they're almost indistinguishable from each other in terms of voice/style. Even with the change of font/color in the text to indicate the switches, I often forgot who was narrating. And really, you shouldn't have to change the font and color of the writing in order to distinguish between different narrators. You should be able to do that within the writing itself. Or better yet, just stick to one narrator because that generally works better.Also, there was like a love … decahedron all of a sudden. I mean, of course there's June and Day. But then there was also June and Anden, and Day and Tess. And it's just like … why. You don't need to have fifty different relationships going on in a story to make it interesting. Love triangles can sometimes work, but a lot of the time––and in the case of this book, I felt––the drama is unnecessary. In a book that already has a lot of plot going on, I didn't think it needed the romantic drama aspect. It just came off as being melodramatic.There were also a couple of plot twists that I just didn't like.1. The whole thing with Thomas and Metias being in love with each other (possibly … ?). Look, of course I'm all for having LGBTQ characters in YA books (well, in all books in general). But just throwing in the "gay" thing as a plot twist just felt like an afterthought to me. There was no indication in the first book that Metias and Thomas had potentially been in love with each other, so I felt like it just came out of nowhere and that Marie Lu just made it up when she got to the sequel. Am I glad that she included gay/bisexual characters in her book? Of course. But I'm also kind of tired of YA books just having "token" gay characters, or characters who say "I'm gay" and then die, or everyone finds out they're gay after they die, etc. It's like, why can't there just be gay characters who a) are actually important and not just hanging out in the background, and b) DON'T DIE? Just saying.2. Day finding out that he's dying of a brain tumor or whatever. Ahhh … what? I mean, there was definitely foreshadow, what with him always talking about his "sudden headaches" and whatnot. I knew it was hinting at something. But it still seemed kind of dramatic to suddenly be like, "Oh yeah, Day is dying. Haha, the end." I think what pisses me off more, though, is that he doesn't tell June. And not only that, but he's just like, "Uhhh yeah, we just shouldn't be together anymore because it won't work out. Lol, bye." I mean, I understand that this really sucks for him, but that's still a pretty shitty thing to do. Also, I'm going to bet a million dollars right now that he's somehow going to find some kind of way around this and there's going to be some kind of last-minute miraculous cure for his brain and he'll survive. It would be ballsy for Marie Lu to actually kill him off, but I kind of doubt it will happen.3. Razor is actually evil, trololololo. Well what do you expect? His name is freaking Razor.Anyway! This book was at least a page-turner and I got through it quickly. I had some problems with the plot and characters, but I'll probably read the third book to find out how it all ends.
Currently reading
Iliad
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
A Clash of Kings
Les Misérables
The Once and Future King
Fire and Ash
