Glory O'Brien's History of The Future Review

Glory O’Brien’s History of the Future by A.S. King 

Title: Glory O’Brien’s History of the Future

Author: A.S. King

Series: None

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Publication Date: October 14, 2014

Genre: Fiction; Realistic Fiction; Contemporary; Coming of Age; Young Adult

Pages: 308

Format: Hardcover

In this masterpiece about freedom, feminism, and destiny, Printz Honor author A.S. King tells the epic story of a girl coping with devastating loss at long last--a girl who has no idea that the future needs her, and that the present needs her even more.
Graduating from high school is a time of limitless possibilities--but not for Glory, who has no plan for what's next. Her mother committed suicide when Glory was only four years old, and she's never stopped wondering if she will eventually go the same way...until a transformative night when she begins to experience an astonishing new power to see a person's infinite past and future. From ancient ancestors to many generations forward, Glory is bombarded with visions--and what she sees ahead of her is terrifying: A tyrannical new leader raises an army. Women's rights disappear. A violent second civil war breaks out. And young girls vanish daily, sold off or interned in camps. Glory makes it her mission to record everything she sees, hoping her notes will somehow make a difference. She may not see a future for herself, but she'll do anything to make sure this one doesn't come to pass.

I always say that A.S. King writes young adult novels for adults. Her writing is so edgy and rough and sharp, it’s unique and cannot be duplicated in any way. Her novels are not for the fainthearted. It’s no wonder that A.S. King always gets honors and awards; she is so different than anyone else and takes risks other people are afraid to take.

Glory O’Brien’s mother went the way Sylvia Plath did. In an oven with dish towels shoved under the door to make sure 4-year-old Glory didn’t become a secondhand suicide. Not that it helped much. Glory’s mother may have stopped breathing, but Glory did not. She lived, or continued to breathe at least. With an overweight, depressed dad and a dirty void in the kitchen where the oven used to be, Glory was left alone, doomed to wonder if she would turn out the same way, if suicidal tendencies were genetically transmitted. She wondered if her future was already planned for her, and if what little say she had in it had vanished the day her mother’s heart stopped pumping. Her love of photography at least, was passed down along with the X chromosomes. The day Glory’s friend finds a petrified bat, deemed Max Black by Glory, and they decide to do something weird, even stranger events follow. After learning the future is at stake, Glory feels a duty to change it even when her own future is still a mystery.

Every time I read an A.S King novel, I just have to take a minute and try and process everything I had just experienced/read. Her books are so rough and unforgiving. She talks about things people only wonder about, but never really have the guts to say. A.S. King may have hard writing, but her fearlessness is more than respectable.

Too many books these days skim over things they’re afraid to write about or reflect upon. A.S. King dives in and attacks them with the style of a great white shark. She sinks her teeth into reality and rips it into shreds until she uncovers the disturbing truth behind honest subjects. In the History of the Future, she talked about suicide, the impending doom of humanity, depression, and loss.

While exaggerated to the point of ridiculousness, A.S. King’s ideas of the future and the present held echoes of truth and validity. I understand the strangeness of her method of writing because she’s dealing with tough topics, and people listen more to the truly outrageous.

Anyone wanting to read the History of the Future, make sure you clear some time for this book, both for reading and processing, but also for reflection. This book will make you think and continue to think weeks after you finish. Two words: Good luck.

All Our Yesterdays Review

All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill

Title: All Our Yesterdays

Author: Cristin Terrill

Series: All Our Yesterdays #1

Publisher: Disney Hyperion

Publication Date: September 3, 2013

Genre: Science Fiction; Mystery; Young Adult

Pages: 360

Format: Hardback
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What would you change?

Imprisoned in the heart of a secret military base, Em has nothing except the voice of the boy in the cell next door and the list of instructions she finds taped inside the drain.

Only Em can complete the final instruction. She’s tried everything to prevent the creation of a time machine that will tear the world apart. She holds the proof: a list she has never seen before, written in her own hand. Each failed attempt in the past has led her to the same terrible present—imprisoned and tortured by a sadistic man called the doctor while war rages outside. 

Marina has loved her best friend, James, since they were children. A gorgeous, introverted science prodigy from one of America’s most famous families, James finally seems to be seeing Marina in a new way, too. But on one disastrous night, James’s life crumbles, and with it, Marina’s hopes for their future. Marina will protect James, no matter what. Even if it means opening her eyes to a truth so terrible that she may not survive it... at least, not as the girl she once was. Em and Marina are in a race against time that only one of them can win.

All Our Yesterdays is a wrenching, brilliantly plotted story of fierce love, unthinkable sacrifice, and the infinite implications of our every choice.

“Time travel isn’t a wonder; it’s an abomination.”

What if you suddenly found that you were in possession of a DeLorean time machine? Or a Time Turner? Or even a Time Sled, right out of H.G. Well’s imagination? Some would say that time travel was a gift. Others a curse. All Our Yesterdays shows the brutally horrific side of time traveling along with some of the advantages of being able to change the past and all the future that goes along with it.

The book opens to Em, a girl incarcerated in a cell neighboring a boy named Finn. Together they try to persevere the torturous activities of “the doctor”. When Em discovers a slip of paper with scratched out phrases written in her handwriting, she can’t seem to forget the final perfectly readable phrase right at the bottom of the list. Just five words holds the future in its hands, but will Em have the courage to do something that could possibly destroy her?

All Our Yesterdays took me on a roller coaster ride that was not limited to turning my mind upside down and backwards. The incomparable complexity of time travel was made surprising simple, even with all its paradoxes and loops. Terrill spun magic into her words, making it impossible for me to put it down for anything other than bathroom breaks and food. The plot twists made my mind implode. The romance made my heart try to break out of my ribcage. Honestly, I’ve only read average books before this one, and I was just so happy to finally have a book to obsess over.

“Basically, space and time are really one thing, a kind of giant film stretched across the universe called space-time.”

Terrill knows how to do time travel right. Incorporating just a dash of science, a pinch of mystery, and somehow concocting the perfect recipe for science fiction at its best. The ending made me slam the metaphorical brake. Should I cry or should I jump with joy? I was so conflicted I didn’t know what to do myself! Let’s just say, that night, I did not sleep very soundly. I want the sequel. Now. Right Now. At this moment. Literally, cannot wait another moment. *slams head on keyboard*

Read this book. Just do it. Please. You won’t be disappointed.

“People weren’t mean to travel in time.”

Scorched Review

Scorched by Mari Mancusi

Title: Scorched

Author: Mari Mancusi

Series: Scorched #1

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Publication Date: September 3, 2013

Genre: Fantasy; Young Adult

Pages: 352

Format: Hardback

goodreads

Trinity
Don’t leave me here... It starts with a whisper. At first Trinity thinks she’s going crazy. It wouldn’t be a big surprise—her grandpa firmly believes there’s a genuine dragon egg in their dusty little West Texas town. But this voice is real, and it’s begging for her protection. Even if no one else can hear it...

Connor
He’s come from a future scorched by dragonfire. His mission: Find the girl. Destroy the egg. Save the world.

Caleb
He’s everything his twin brother Connor hates: cocky, undisciplined, and obsessed with saving dragons. 

Trinity has no idea which brother to believe. All she has to go by is the voice in her head—a dragon that won’t be tamed.

I finally decided to read this book when I saw it, just sitting there, begging for me to pick it up, in my local library. I was excited. I had expectations for this book, which honestly, I didn’t think it would meet. I was surprised to find that it was better than I originally hoped it would be.

Trinity is struggling with keeping her grandfather’s museum afloat and them together when an unexpected (and desperately unwanted) discovery changes their life forever. With money that was supposed to keep them above water for just a little bit longer, her grandfather buys what he believes is a real dragon egg. Trinity, devastated with her beloved grandfather’s decision refuses to believe in his fantasies. That is, until she starts hearing voices and a mysterious man claiming he is from the future trying to save to the world from a dragon apocalypse shows up at her doorstep and saves her life. Unknowingly, she is sucked into a world she only ever saw in the craziest of video games.

The writing was impressive. The witty humor and cynical sarcasm made me almost laugh out loud more than once. I loved how light and fun the novel felt. I couldn’t put it down until the last page. It was fast-paced, humorous and action-filled, all the things you could ever want in a dragon novel.

Things I didn’t like? The continuous video game references. I didn’t really see the point in how video games kept showing up in really random places. I’m not so much a gamer-girl myself, so I just didn’t get it, or relate to it. If I could take one part out of this book, it would be that.

Things I did like? The love triangle. Definitely. It was fun and kept me turning the pages, hungry for more. I’m sorry to anyone who feels differently, but Team Caleb. All the way. Forever and ever.

In all, this book was better than expected, not the best I’ve ever read, and an exciting fantasy book mixed with just a hint of time travel. I enjoyed it and would recommend to anyone looking for another dragon book besides Eragon (even though it is a way lighter read than the Inheritance Cycle). A must-read for fantasy lovers and dragon lovers alike.   

Obsidian Mirror Review

Obsidian Mirror by Catherine Fisher

Title: Obsidian Mirror

Author: Catherine Fisher

Series: Chronoptika #1

Publisher: Dial

Publication Date: April 23 2013

Genre: Fantasy; Science Fiction; Young Adult

Pages: 384

Format: Hardback

goodreads

Jake's father disappears while working on mysterious experiments with the obsessive, reclusive Oberon Venn. Jake is convinced Venn has murdered him. But the truth he finds at the snow-bound Wintercombe Abbey is far stranger ... The experiments concerned a black mirror, which is a portal to both the past and the future. Venn is not alone in wanting to use its powers. Strangers begin gathering in and around Venn's estate: Sarah - a runaway, who appears out of nowhere and is clearly not what she says, Maskelyne - who claims the mirror was stolen from him in some past century. There are others, a product of the mirror's power to twist time. And a tribe of elemental beings surround this isolated estate, fey, cold, untrustworthy, and filled with hate for humans. But of them all, Jake is hell-bent on using the mirror to get to the truth. Whatever the cost, he must learn what really happened to his father.

“This was the past. The only past left. Captured by light, frozen in a rigid image. Gone. But if you could re-enter it; if you could go back to that place and be that person again, if you could live that moment again, better, without the stupid remarks, the arguments, the mistakes, wouldn’t that be a things worth taking all the risks in the world for?”

If I saw this book in the library, and someone asked me if it was any good, my reaction would be something along the lines of shrugging noncommittally and saying “It’s okay, I guess. If you like that sort of thing.”

This book was definitely not one of my favorite books.

Catherine Fisher is a highly acclaimed writer known for her interesting fantasy/sci-fy books. I read the first book of her New York bestselling series, Incarceron, and much like this book, I found it confusing and hard to get into. I’ll admit that Fisher is one of the most creative fantasy writers that I've read. But her books are just not my kind of books.

It was really hard to get lost in this book. Some books have really vivid awesome imagery that allows the reader to really get into the book. Obsidian Mirrorlacked that interesting world-building. Not only that, but the magic and the time traveling was just so complicated.I didn’t really know what was going on half the time and the other half I was just too bored to care. The magic was kind of explained scientifically. Whenever an author turn mysterious magic into boring old science and takes all the magic out of the magic, the result is unadulterated boredom.

Another reason I just do not care for this book is that there was too much going on. Fairies and fantasy worlds mixed with time travel science fiction made for a confusing complicated story. In the beginning, Fisher hooks you with questions and mystery, but in my opinion, there were too many questions and not enough answers. There was no one that didn't have  secrets or an unknown past. It was hard to find out how it all fit together, or why that piece of information was so important. Much like the mythical hydra, every time a question was solved, two more popped in its place. I mean, they were fighting an enemy from the future from the present by going to the past with the help of someone trying to save the future by helping the past which was actually the present even though they still have to transport to the past to save the future by helping the present.

I got a headache just writing that.

I won’t say that this book was horrible. It just wasn't good. For me. The total lack of romance or character relationships was definitely a penalty point. And there was potential for it. The confusing plot and overwhelming amount of information thrown at you at every page turn was another thumbs-down. While I didn't like it, if there is someone who wants a fantasy science fiction book completely lacking romance with a topsy-turvy plot line, they will absolutely love this book. If not, then I wouldn't recommend it.

Obsidian Mirror was not my cup of tea. Too many flavors and not enough reward. I don’t plan on reading the sequel.

Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children Review

Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Title: Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children
Author: Ransom Riggs
Series: Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children #1
Publisher: Quirk
Publication Date: June 7th, 2011
Genre: Supernatural; Mystery; Fantasy; Young Adult
Pages: 348
Format: Kindle ebook
goodreads

A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of very curious photographs.

It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.

A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows

"I had just come to accept that my life would be ordinary when extraordinary things began to happen."

 Jacob Portman was anything but extraordinary. He was rich, friendless, and labeled crazy by all his family after witnessing Grandpa Portman brutally murdered by a monster that only he remembered seeing. He sees a therapist and barely survives everyday life, all the while being haunted by Grandpa Portman’s dying words.

Find the bird. In the loop. On the other side of the old man’s grave. September third, 1940.

Jacob Portman has always looked up to his Grandpa, seeing him as a hero and someone worth idolizing. When Grandpa told him stories of children with mysterious powers, he believed every word, not just because of his faith in his grandfather, but because of the strange pictures Grandpa Portman could conjure up as proof. A floating girl. An invisible boy. A boy who had a family of bees living inside of him. A girl with the ability to ignite fire. And strangest of all, the monsters that Grandpa Portman always seems to talk about. Monsters he claims to have spent his whole life fighting.

Jacob stopped believing in his grandfather’s stories when children started to tease him for believing fairy tales. His grandfather stops telling his stories when he stops believing them, and he soon writes off Grandpa Portman as crazy; that is, until the day he dies. 

Jacob journeys to find closure and, more importantly, the truth about his grandfather. In the small isolated island Cairnholm, nothing much seems possible. On an island with only one restaurant, telephone, and hotel/pub, what could possibly have led to Grandpa Portman’s mysterious stories? One day, when Jacob journeys to the bog containing the decrepit house of Grandpa Portman’s stories, he sees something that he will never be able to un-see.

Ransom Riggs talent for imagery brought the mysterious atmosphere of this book right into my world. I could feel the mud of the bog beneath my feet and smell the diesel of the electricity generators of the island of Cairnholm. The monsters were as real to me as they were to Jacob in the story. Riggs engrossing language held me page after page, unable to look away until the mystery was solved. I gasped aloud when I read the final reveal and bit my fingernails as the harrowing final battle played out.

"My grandfather had described it a hundred times, but in his stories the house was always a bright, happy place- big and rambling, yes, but full of light and laughter. What stood before me now was no refuge from monsters but a monster itself, staring down from its perch on the hill with vacant hunger. Trees burst forth from broken windows and skins of scabrous vine gnawed at the walls like antibodies attacking a virus- as if nature itself had waged war against it- but the house seemed unkillable, resolutely upright despite the wrongness of its angles and the jagged teeth of sky visible through sections of collapsed roof." 

One of the greatest things for me about this book was the pictures in the story. It brought reality into something totally and unquestionably unreal. Of course, when I saw them, I knew that they were manipulated. That is, until I read the first few sentences of the Author’s Note. The photos in the book, the totally and utterly impossible photographs, were in fact real. When he found the photos, they inspired Ransom Riggs to write their improbable story.

This book is one of my new favorites. From teens to adults, all will love this book to its very spine. It questions our beliefs of what can or can’t be real. It challenges how we react to the impossible. It makes us rethink the peculiar. This book taught me one very important thing:

Being peculiar is sometimes the same thing as being great.

"I'd always known I was strange. I never dreamed I was peculiar."