Mindwalker by Kate Dylan, a review

Mindwalker by Kate Dylan was September’s Goldsboro GSFF box book. A YA Sci-Fi set in Earth’s future. I always enjoy the GSFF box books so I was excited to dive in!

Mindwalker by Kate Dylan

Our protagonist is an 18 year old girl who has a supercomputer grafted into her brain in order to let her control secret agents when they need extraction, and anytime soon it’s going to blow. When Sil is forced to go on the run she joins with an unlikely band of people and learns more about the world she thought she knew.

This is such a fast moving book, which is something I always enjoy. Sil is a really interesting protagonist to be inside the head of, seeing how she starts the book and her thoughts and opinions of the company she works for and how these alter over the course of the novel. I also love that we get some alternative perspectives from the side characters. Both from those inside the company and out.

The core plot point in this book is relatively predictable. But I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. I think all of you know, from the minimal amount I’ve said so far, that Sil starts out loving her company she works for and then ends up realising it’s bad. However, the twists and turns and the commentary around this? It’s done so well! There is one twist in particular that I just *adored* how it was done! And there were so many interesting discussions and viewpoints.

The writing style itself is also a fun one. Dylan says that she’s emulating Marvel and I think she does that well (and I adore that Sil names her AI Jarvis!). It really does lend the book a fast pace and kept me hooked the whole way through.

On CAWPILE I rated this: Charcters: 8, Atmosphere: 8, Writing: 8, Plot: 7, Intrigue: 8, Logic: 7, and Enjoyment: 9 giving an average of 8 and a 4.5* rating.

Highlight here for content warnings: body horror, death, violence, blood, vomit, medical content, suicide.

I absolutely need more books from this world, and Kate Dylan commented on my insta post suggesting we’ll get just that… I’m so excited! This is a fantastic YA Sci-Fi that I think is light enough to entice newbies to the genre, as well as having enough of the core Sci-Fi components to satisfy those who love the genre. In other words? This book is so much fun. I really do recommend it. And this is another big tick to Goldsboro from me!

The Never Tilting World by Rin Chupeco, a review (The Never Tilting World #1)

The Never Tilting World by Rin Chupeco was a duology that was on my radar but I hadn’t thought to dive in. That was changed when Kari sent me both books (thank you!) and I knew that I’d enjoy them if they were recommended by her.

The Never Tilting World by Rin Chupeco

Enjoy this I did! This is a fantastic mix of sci-fi and fantasy. We’re in a world that has stopped spinning on its axis, meaning one half is frozen and the other burns under the sun’s heat. To fix this? Magic.

There are multiple POVs through this book, and whether they’re in the dark or the light is signified by a moon or a sun at the chapter start. But there are two characters in each hemisphere and there’s no distinguishing mark between them. That was my one frustration with this book, having to figure that out through context. Other than that, I adored our 4 POVs. They all brought really unique aspects and viewpoints to the story, without having unconvincing miscommunication.

The magic and science within the book were fascinating too. One hemisphere being boiling and one freezing is what would happen to the earth if it stopped spinning on its axis in real life, and I love that this was brought into the novel. But I also really enjoyed the magical aspect and how that was what caused the Earth to stop rotating in the first place (as well as being an aspect of the high born’s daily lives)

On CAWPILE I rated this: Characters: 8, Atmosphere: 8, Writing: 8, Plot: 8, Intrigue: 8, Logic: 8, Enjoyment: 8, with an average of 8 (no surprise) and a 4.5* rating!

Highlight here for content warnings: abuse (mentioned), animal death, death (discussed), gore, harassment (mentioned), PTSD depiction, sexual assault (mentioned), violence, war themes.

This is such a great first book in a trilogy. I think the first two sentences of my original goodreads review sum it up well. “I have passed. I am deceased”.

Pick up this duology! Please!

An Unkindness of Ghosts – a review

In this Sci-Fi novel we follow Aster. She’s considered “odd-mannered, obsessive, [and] withdrawn” by the others on the ship, who call her an ogre and a freak, but there’s no truth to their claims. She wishes there was. Aster is just Aster. She lives in the slums of the HSS Matilsda, a ship organised like the antebellum South, where dark-skinned passengers like Aster are considered to be less than human. Aster, when retracing her deceased mother’s footsteps, learns that there may be a way off of this ship and a method of escape, if she’s willing to fight for it.

I absolutely adored this book. Wholly and completely. I adore Rivers Solomon’s writing and the way they approach complex topics. This is a very heavy book, so if you’re someone who needs trigger warnings please do check them out below.

This book really explores the collective trauma that can be held within a community, as well as racism, sexism, gender identity, ableism, and more. As I said, it discusses a lot. I loved the way Solomon distinguished the different areas of the ship by how they spoke and how they acted, adding a layer of realism to the work.

Also the fact that the upper decks (light skinned, in power) have a homogenous method of speech and societal norms, no matter which deck, versus the distinct differences between the lower decks, deck to deck.

On top of the impressive discussions, this is just a very well written sci-fi book. The discussions are woven into the narrative so they don’t feel clunky or forced. Instead we are simply following Aster as she learns about the ship, she learns the science behind issues they’re having, she learns more about healing people, about people, and about herself. And the ending of this book? Totally not what I expected, left me wanting more!!!

On CAWPILE I gave this book:

Characters: 10

Atmosphere: 9

Writing: 9

Plot: 8

Intrigue: 9

Logic: 9

Enjoyment: 10

For an overall rating of 9.14 which is of course a 5 star read!!

Highlight here for trigger warnings: ableism, abortion, blood, child abuse (sexual, implied), chronic illness, confinement, death (children and adult), gun violence, grief, homophobia, lynching, medical content and trauma, mental illness, misogyny, paedophilia, panic attacks/disorders, physical abuse, police brutality, racism, rape, religious bigotry, self harm, sexual assault (mentioned), slavery, suicide (mentioned), torture, violence

Once again please do check out the trigger warnings if you possibly need them as this is a really heavy book, but if you’re able to read through it I think it’s worth the read.

Scarlet by Marissa Meyer, book 2 in the Lunar Chronicles | A Review

In the second book of the Lunar Chronicles we are introduced to Scarlet, her grandmother has went missing and nobody seems to be taking it seriously. Even the police have blown her off. When she encounters Wolf, who claims to have knowledge about her grandmother’s whereabouts, she has to trust this suspicious man. We also still get to follow Cinder, continuing on from where she left off at the end of her own book.

3/5 stars

I had been worried, before I’d checked, that we wouldn’t get to carry on reading from Cinder’s point of view. I had really enjoyed her story and was pleased to find out I’d get to read from her again. There are a lot of different points of view throughout this book, and I imagine that is only going to get more intense as the series progresses and more characters are introduced so if you don’t like reading from multiple viewpoints this might not be the series for you.

I love the extra world building that we get in this novel, as it was a little lacklustre in Cinder. We are at two opposite ends of the world as we begin the book, as well as having the Moon come into play, so this allowed Meyer to naturally build a lot more upon what we had shown to us already without info dumping. I also like the extra little bits of character building that develop for all those we already met in book one.

The new characters that were introduced were a lot of fun, I love the platonic and romantic chemistry between so many of them and how they have to work to gain each other’s trust and respect. So often in YA that is skimmed over. I’m really looking forward to seeing how they all interact with each other in the future books, as well as what the new characters I’m assuming will appear will add to the narrative.

I do have to say that the writing was lacking in points. There was one sentence in particular which used the phrase “very special glass” that had me shocked that it made it into the final edit and the published book. At points, with writing like this, the book does feel kind of trashy. Now this doesn’t mean that I’m not enjoying the book, but the writing isn’t the best and that can draw me out of the story at points. It’s not going to stop me from reading the rest of the books but it’s definitely something that I want to mention.

I’ll definitely have to pick up Cress at some point and I’m really looking forward to learning more about this world, the characters in it, and seeing the plot resolve itself finally in book 4! I just hope the writing improves a little bit!

I’ve finally read it!

It took me long enough to buy it (eventually I got it with a Waterstones gift card my beautiful flatmate gave me for my 22nd) and then it took me a long while to actually read it. But I’ve read it! And I loved it! I can see why so many people enjoy it, I love the unique art style and layout of a novel and I also was incredibly invested in the characters.

The world is well developed, it’s set in our future and is based on three ships trying to escape from another and save the thousands of civilians on board as the other ship wants to destroy them. We follow two main characters, a teenage boy and girl who just before boarding these ships broke up with each other. And now they need to work together.

The character development is done beautifully, with so many events having a massive impact on their ever-shrinking world. I also loved the artwork within, which really fits with the theme, and the unique formatting is also done incredibly well, although there was one section that I read in the wrong order cause I didn’t realise!!

If you’re into sci-fi and like YA books I think this one is great! It’s definitely a YA work though, I wasn’t sure until I sent a pic of some pages to my bf (who really doesn’t like YA books) and he declined to borrow my copy based on that. But if you like YA, either all the time or sometimes, I definitely think you should give this beauty a shot!

This Mortal Coil by Emily Suvada

Okay so I did this backwards, I actually reviewed This Cruel Design (book 2) first. So if you’re interested then that review is available here! I reviewed that one first as I had received an ARC copy from the publishers and wanted to put up my review to coincide with the books release. This is also the first time I’ve been able to slot my review in, despite me finishing this book on the 8th October… so let’s get into the actual review!

Of course, I LOVED this book!!! It was absolutely amazing and I was completely engrossed from start to end. I adored our main character Cat and enjoyed slowly learning more about her background and also learning through her about how the world is and what has happened between now and the future in which this book is set.

The sci-fi, coding and tech side was so developed and clearly Emily had researched it well or previously had a good knowledge as it was in so much detail and was so interesting to learn about. It would be pretty cool if it was real! (Let me ignore the real world implications for a bit, okay?).

The ending of this book absolutely murdered me, as in lying on the kitchen floor making weird noises as my (at the time new) flatmate looked on in confusion. She’s not a reader. Yet. But it killed me and I cannot believe I hadn’t read this sooner. If you like any sort of dystopian, sci-fi, techy reads then definitely give this one a go! I will be reading absolutely everything Emily Suvada publishes in the future thanks to these two beauties ♥♥♥

Airhead Series Review

I was holding onto this series for a loooong time. I bought them in Summer 2013 (I think?) at a Scholastic bookstore I visited in NYC, and didn’t read them until 2018. That’s 5 long years of not reading those books, and then I read all three of them in one year!

I had been putting it off as they’re contemporary books, “girly”, and to be perfectly honest… I got them cause they were by an author I recognised, were signed, and my mum said she’d pay for them! Bad I know, I know. I was young! (16 in fact! I’m 22 now and yet that holiday feels like only a year or two ago!)

However, I finally got around to reading Airhead as I had randomly taken it to uni (probably because I realised that I needed to read it!) and ended up surprising myself and enjoying it a lot, giving it 4 stars. In fact, I gave all three books in this trilogy 4 stars across the board. They never quite hit the 5-star mark, but for a genre I avoided for a good 8 years that’s a damn good result.

We follow a teenage girl (Em Watts) who is nerdy and unassuming in looks, after an incident, and due to some stuff (isn’t is fun trying to avoid spoilers!) she wakes up in the body of a supermodel. Like seriously. And this book doesn’t just go for the cliche of going and doing loads of “cool” things (although of course that does happen a little), but it also brings up the identity crisis that would happen if this was to occur in real life. It makes it feel much more real with the panic of losing your family, your life, your lifestyle and those you love, whilst having to pretend to be someone you’re not.

The trilogy is a great length to follow a decent proportion of Emmerson’s life within this new body, and Meg Cabot managed to lay out the plot twists and action points really well throughout the series so that each book is engaging and interesting. The only complaint I would have about this series is that the sci-fi twist isn’t more prominent, but that’s purely from my reading preference and it’s actually a great contemporary read. There is a romance that progresses throughout the books, and I feel like the speed of that is done well also. It’s definitely not rushed and feels like it’s pretty natural.

All in all, this was a sweet, interesting and well-done trilogy which has great sciencey features along with an interesting psychological look at how someone would cope with this scenario. It is also a contemporary read, 100%, but maybe this would be a good one to give a go if you’re normally not into the genre? Meg Cabot tackled the subject very well and I personally found it super engaging. It’s made me more open to reading contemporaries in the future, so maybe I’ll have even more books for my tbr!

Have you read the series? What did you think? Let me know in the comments!

 

Slated by Teri Terry, a review

It’s been many years since I’ve read this book, and I still absolutely adore it and recommend it to anybody who wants some amazingly done ya dystopian! It’s a well-covered genre within the young adult age bracket, and yet this book manages to bring a fresh look to the genre and is incredibly engrossing and absorbing.

I read this when I was 17 (5 years ago now, oh god) and there are two reasons that I know this book was amazing.

1. I was still obsessed and needing to read the rest in the series years later (I couldn’t afford to buy the next two straight away)
2. I read this whole 400+ page book on my phone. I found ways to read it in class, on the bus, when I should’ve been revising for my exams. I was so into it!

This isn’t some mahoosive phone either guys, this is an iPhone 6. This book was so damn good. So obviously I’ve given this 5*s, but why?

First of all, the concept. Our main character Kyla has been “slated”, which means that she was caught doing something illegal and those under 16 have their minds wiped by the government and are placed with a sort of foster family in order to try and give them a second chance at life. Sounds great, sounds like a good solution. But her memories are gone, her personality erased, and she has no clue why.

Teri Terry has mixed dystopian and sci-fi together here to create an interesting and unique concept of a world that has drastically changed, for the worse, since the past but no one can quite see it with the technology and the government blinding them with lies and deceit.

Kyla is a relatable character and a typical teen. But more than that, she also has a great developmental arc and slowly, very slowly, starts to become her own person. Just here, it’s instead of one the government molded rather than our parents. When it comes to the rest of her foster family, you don’t know who to trust. Sides keep changing and the cards in play are never fully revealed. Her mum is the daughter of the assassinated previous Prime Minister, her dad seems to be on her side but there’s something he’s not saying, and her foster sister is a slated too. What did she do?

We also have Ben, beloved Ben. He’s the cause of the romance in this book, and Teri writes him in a way that would make almost anyone fall for him. You need their relationship to succeed. And yes, I know, I don’t like romances. But when they’re intertwined brilliantly with a story arc which is technically separate I just can’t help but fall in love with couples!

Some older readers might be put off by the “ya-ness” of this book, but I urge you to give it a go. I may have been within the age bracket when I read book #1, but I read the next 2 books when I was 21 and adored them both and definitely want to re-read them. Get the from the library, from a charity shop, just give this amazing author and amazing book series a go. You never know, it might surprise you.

Have you read the Slated trilogy? Or any of Teri Terry’s other books? I’ve yet to get around to her other writing but I’m very excited to! I adore it!

This Cruel Design to break your heart!

I was lucky enough to win an ARC (advanced reader copy) of this book in a Twitter giveaway, and I was so excited! I hadn’t actually read This Mortal Coil at this point (book #1 in the series) but it was something I’d had my eye on and this gave me the push to bump it up my TBR (to be read) list. Once I had read Mortal Coil I was hooked and had to use a lot of self control to not just dive straight in to Cruel Design! But personally I will mix the plot of series’ together if I read them back to back so I gave myself some time, and then dove in.

From this point on I will be vaguely outlining the plot of The Cruel Design (which is book #2) so there will be some spoilers for book #1. Don’t read ahead if you don’t want to be spoiled! You’ve been warned!

So we continue to follow our protagonist Cat after what they thought was code to stop the Hydra virus has been released, and the extra code hidden within has been given to every human on the planet. The code that Lachlan can use to control and reprogram humanity. They’re in a race against Cartaxus, the corporation that has their own adgenda and will do anything to reach it, whether that is working with or against Catarina, Cole and Leoben.

The virus is continuing to evolve pass the vaccine and they have to head to Entropia, the base of all extreme hackers and coders, to find the woman who runs it, and who used to work on the code with Cartaxus until she escaped, Regina. But more comes to light than the three were expecting, and everything that Cat knew might turn out to be a lie.

So if that plot summary doesn’t sound good to you then…. well I guess this book isn’t for you. But if it does, oh my genehacking coders, you need to pick it up! This book had me reading well past when I wanted to go to sleep. I used to do this a lot as a child and thought that I had just “grown-up” and that is why I’m not kept up by books anymore. Apparently, I was wrong! I was up until 3am finishing this bad boy, and if you follow me on Instagram (@autumnofpellinor) you’ll have seen my stories when I finally finished the book. Emily killed me in the absolute best way! I was heartbroken, shocked, confused, angry, and I needed more! I can’t believe I’m going to have to wait so long for part three of this series, but I’m also super excited that there is going to be a book three! For some reason, I had assumed it was a duology and was expecting it to wrap up in this book!

If this is a genre/topic you enjoy then this book will be unputdownable and absolutely amazing! I did have one or two little gripes, but that’s just me being a pedantic pain in the arse (and probably just feeling angry at all the amazing plot twists and turns!) and Emily Suvada has absolutely nothing to worry about because this book was pretty much perfect!

This book is set to come out on the 30th October/1st November (Goodreads says Oct, my ARC copy says Nov so keep an eye out on both dates) and I 100% recommend picking this beauty up! The cover artist(s) did an amazing job on the cover and the book itself will blow you away, and if you haven’t read book #1 yet then get on it! It killed me so much that I was lying on the floor of my flat kitchen (and my poor flatmate who had only known me 3 weeks got to see a BookWorm disintegrating through shock, anger and love – she’s recovered now don’t worry) and couldn’t do anything. I can’t wait to read the short story which goes along with this series, and also absolutely anything else that Emily comes out with in the future! She is now one of my auto-read authors!! (I finished this book 3 days ago and I’m still in “aaaaggghhh” mode, which should also be an indicator for how much I loved this!)

Have you read This Mortal Coil or Thie Cruel Design? What did you think? Are you going to pick them up? Comment below! I need someone to nerd out with about this series!

BOOKTUBEATHON 2018 WRAP UP!

I did it! I finished my first ever BookTubeAThon! It was genuinely difficult, as I did the 7in7readathon just beforehand, however, I am really proud of what I managed to do! So, let’s get into the challenges and what I managed!

Book 1 was I Used To Know That Geography, by Will Williams. This book was part of the coin toss challenge, I did it between this book and a 1950s geography textbook, and clearly, this one won. This is a non-fiction book which encompasses the basics of Geography within the GSCE sector of UK education. My boyfriend bought me this as a little gift as this is the topic of my undergraduate degree! I genuinely enjoyed this, I think it would be such a good book to remind someone of the basics of geography or to even teach them it for the first time if they didn’t choose it as a subject. I gave it 4/5*. This book also counted as a book with green on the cover, reading a whole book with the same hat on (my mortarboard!) and also something that I want to do, which is geography.

Next up was Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery, which was my choice for the challenge of reading a book and then watching its adaptation. This took me a little while to get through, I enjoyed our introduction to Anne however, after this up until around when she turns 13 I struggled through. It was just not overly interesting to me and felt a lot like filler. Maybe I just really don’t like kids! Either way, once I got to the section where Anne was a little older I absolutely fell in love with her and with the whole story, speeding right through the last hundred odd pages. I then watched the adaptation from the 1980s and also loved this! I’m really excited to carry on with the books so that I can watch the next film! I gave Anne 4/5*, which is a pity as I feel really invested in this world now and wish I had read this as a girl!

Book number three was The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank, by Willy Lindwer. This book follows the story of six women who survived the Holocaust and their stories. They all individually had interactions with the Frank family during this time, however, that is not the main focus of their stories. They simply are telling us the atrocities they suffered, the comradeships they formed to make it through this horrendous event and how their lives were forever changed. This is such an important read, we should not forget horrific past events, lest we make the same mistakes. 5/5*

Onto something a little lighter for book four…but only a little, with Alice by Christina Henry. This is a dark retelling of Alice in Wonderland with Christina adding her own twists and turns to the aftermath of Alice’s visit and what it did to her. This version of events is not a cutesy fairy tale, it’s horrific and realistic and absolutely engrossing. I was still in this world days after I finished the book. Loved it! 5/5*!!

Now onto something that actually is lighter, Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett. The 6th book in the Discworld series! As anyone who is aware of the Discworld knows, these books are very lighthearted, humourous and silly so definitely a good choice after the last two, darker books. This is my favourite book so far in the series, I love all three witches and just lost myself in the world. Excited for the next witches story! 4.5/5*

Now this is where I started to deviate from my tbr for the BookTubeAThon. I was in a slump from all this reading for both this readathon and also the 7in7readathon which was for 7 days directly before BTAT. A lot of reading! So I went for a re-read instead, Battle of Britain by Chris Priestley. I picked this thin, 8-12 book which I know I enjoy and also has a spine which I love so that I could still meet that challenge. This is historical fiction which is written in a diary-like style and I personally think that all the books in this set are brilliant for children. 4/5*

I was still in a panicky stage, so I went for this 3-7 book that came with an American Girl doll I got when I was 7! Bright, Shiny Skylar by Valerie Tripp. I just really needed a quick read! Took me around 5 mins and was a really good way to stop me from stressing about the books I was reading as this was my 7th book! 3/5* for the age range that it’s in.

 

So now I wasn’t panicking as much I was able to actually read! Runaway by Meg Cabot, so back onto my planned tbr! This is the 3rd book in the Airhead series, which I’ve really enjoyed. It didn’t go in the direction I expected but tbh I’m not mad! All three have been quick and fun reads for me and I definitely recommend people who aren’t usually into “fluffy” contemporary to have a look at these. They are a good middle ground I think! 4/5*

Now technically that was my last book for the BookTubeAThon, at least it’s the last book that I completed. But I was in a good reading mood after finishing this so I picked up the final book that had been on my tbr.

Unrivalled by Alyson Noël. I only got 109 pages into this book, and tbh I’m still making my way through it now, but I have enjoyed what I’ve read of it and I’m really glad I managed to at least start it within BTAT. So far, I’d give what I’ve read 3/5*, but I’m not even halfway through yet so fingers crossed I’ll rate it higher!

 

And that’s my wrap up for the BookTubeAThon! In total, I read 1980 pages!!!! 1871 of these were from books that I started and finished during the readathon. This has taken me a while to get up, to be honest, I’ve been swimming in things to do for moving next month and it’s been hella stressful. So I decided that I was going to let myself write and upload this when it actually worked for me rather than stressing myself out to hell and back! Hopefully, I’ll be back on track….after the next post! Which is a July wrap up!!! (Halfway through August, I know, I know. It’ll be up to date after that!! haha).