Waiting on Wednesday (8): Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

From Goodreads:

Four decades of peace have done little to ease the mistrust between humans and dragons in the kingdom of Goredd. Folding themselves into human shape, dragons attend court as ambassadors, and lend their rational, mathematical minds to universities as scholars and teachers. As the treaty's anniversary draws near, however, tensions are high.
Seraphina Dombegh has reason to fear both sides. An unusually gifted musician, she joins the court just as a member of the royal family is murdered—in suspiciously draconian fashion. Seraphina is drawn into the investigation, partnering with the captain of the Queen's Guard, the dangerously perceptive Prince Lucian Kiggs. While they begin to uncover hints of a sinister plot to destroy the peace, Seraphina struggles to protect her own secret, the secret behind her musical gift, one so terrible that its discovery could mean her very life. 

In her exquisitely written fantasy debut, Rachel Hartman creates a rich, complex, and utterly original world. Seraphina's tortuous journey to self-acceptance is one readers will remember long after they've turned the final page. 

Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Publication Date: July 10th, 2012
Amazon, Author's Website

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I've been trying to get back into fantasy books again, and from the already-stellar ratings over at Goodreads it looks like I'll have to get this one to help me on my way. I like the idea of dragons "folding" into human shape, along with the conspiracy theme. But, what I really love is that Prince Lucian is described as "dangerously perceptive," and that his description doesn't immediately follow that up with "sexy," "seductive," or any of the like. Romance is fine in small doses, but I really can't stand it when a relationship status is used to define an entire person. I really can't wait for this one!

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Waiting on Wednesday is hosted over at Breaking the Spine.

Fantastic Covers Friday (6): XVI by Julia Karr

Fantastic Covers Friday is a weekly meme over here at Brave New Shelf where I highlight beautiful covers that I find, from both old books and new, from young adult books.

This week:

XVI 

by: Julia Karr

Cover Design: Emilian Gregory

Cover photos copyright Christina Page

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I normally hate faces on the covers of books. I'd much rather have a symbol from the story or some sort of minimalist design going on. But here, broken up with the title and that scared/ depressed/ broken look on the model's face is just too perfect for this book as a whole. Incorporating the title into the design on the cover of the book itself rather than just slapping it on was also brilliant. 

Waiting on Wednesday (7): This Is Not a Test by Courtney Summers

From Goodreads:

It’s the end of the world. Six students have taken cover in Cortege High but shelter is little comfort when the dead outside won’t stop pounding on the doors. One bite is all it takes to kill a person and bring them back as a monstrous version of their former self. To Sloane Price, that doesn’t sound so bad. Six months ago, her world collapsed and since then, she’s failed to find a reason to keep going. Now seems like the perfect time to give up. As Sloane eagerly waits for the barricades to fall, she’s forced to witness the apocalypse through the eyes of five people who actually wantto live. But as the days crawl by, the motivations for survival change in startling ways and soon the group’s fate is determined less and less by what’s happening outside and more and more by the unpredictable and violent bids for life—and death—inside. When everything is gone, what do you hold on to?

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Publication Date: June 19th, 2012
Amazon, Author's Website

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I like this kind of new take on zombie stories. I feel like, despite all of the vampires and werewolves and fairies and what other supernatural creatures YA fic has been latching on to, authors have been keeping zombies at more than an arms length. It's uncharted territory for the most part. I also like how she, from the description, doesn't sound like a gung-ho "let's punch every zombie in the face!!!" type of girl. People break down in apocalyptic situations. This cover is also another one that probably merits a Fantastic Covers Friday post, too.

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Waiting on Wednesday is hosted over at Breaking the Spine.

Review: I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga

From Goodreads:

What if the world's worst serial killer...was your dad?
Jasper (Jazz) Dent is a likable teenager. A charmer, one might say.
But he's also the son of the world's most infamous serial killer, and for Dear Old Dad, Take Your Son to Work Day was year-round. Jazz has witnessed crime scenes the way cops wish they could--from the criminal's point of view.
And now bodies are piling up in Lobo's Nod.
In an effort to clear his name, Jazz joins the police in a hunt for a new serial killer. But Jazz has a secret--could he be more like his father than anyone knows?

I'm not a fan of crime novels normally, but I was more than willing to make an exception for one of Barry Lyga's works. This book was such a whirlwind; I finished it in only three days (reading that fast is once in a blue moon for me.) I really couldn't put it down!

The scary thing about I Hunt Killers is how into it I got. It was hard to read sometimes, but every little detail and conversation drew me deeper into the book. You not only read about killers, but you begin to think like them as well. When new characters showed up, I couldn't stop thinking: would they be a victim? If so, what made me think that? Did they act vulnerable? Was it how they looked? You begin to profile every minor character that comes up, hoping to crack the mystery yourself before the last pages (I figured out a few things, but had plenty of surprises to keep me shocked at the end.)

Jazz turned out to be such an interesting and complex character. The book wasn't written in first person, but you knew so much about him simply from his actions and relationships, including the people he kept at more than an arm's length. Despite his circumstances being so different from my own, I still felt like I really knew him.

This is a book more than worth picking up, especially if you're a fan of crime novels, or are looking for a new kind of YA fiction that hasn't really been explored. Barry Lyga has written a captivating and eerily fascinating novel that won't disappoint.

(P.S. I don't normally do trigger warnings in my book reviews, but if you are sensitive to mentions of mental illness, torture, animal abuse, and/or rape/ sexual abuse, this may be a book that you want to pass up.)

Goodreads, Amazon, Barry Lyga's website, my Boy Toy review
Title: I Hunt Killers
Author: Barry Lyga
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: April 3rd, 2012
Page #: 359
ISBN: 0316125849
ISBN-13: 9780316125840

Fantastic Covers Friday (5): Prodigy by Marie Lu

Fantastic Covers Friday is a weekly meme over here at Brave New Shelf where I highlight beautiful covers that I find, from both old books and new, from young adult books.

This week:

Prodigy

by Marie Lu

(Note: I'm going to assume that the same person who designed the last cover also designed this one. I will update this post when more information becomes available.)

Cover Art and Design: Lori Thorn

Creative Direction: Linda McCarthy

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I love simple, straight-forward covers so much, and I'm pleased as punch that this cover isn't a far cry from from the last one. I do like this color scheme more though, the cold black and blue to reflect the situation that June and Day find themselves in at the end of the first book. Prodigy will be released next January, but I don't think that I can wait that long! (Also, if you haven't already, the summary is already up at Goodreads--the link is in the title under the picture. Be sure to go over and take a look!)

I (finally) saw The Hunger Games!

Bulbapedia

So tonight, at seven PM, on May 7th, I saw the Hunger Games. In theaters. For the first time. Wearing my mockingjay necklace. Literally all by myself. No joke.

GeekMom

I thought it was a beautifully made movie (the sounds, the setting, and the off-kilter camera work were all stunning), but not my favorite adaption. I felt like people who hadn't read the books would lost (feel free to say something if you weren't, though). It was really nice to be able to recognize things from the book, and I thought some of the book was enhanced by the film.

One of my favorite things was just how beautiful the arena was. You didn't need 3D glasses to appreciate just how green and lively the forest is. I could hear crickets, and doves, and all kinds of forest life, and that made for a better experience than just sticking in some random animal noises. It helped to balance out the tension with some peace.

Hunger Games Wikia

The only two things that I would have changed were Rue's screen time and the showing of the propaganda video. Of course I though Rue's death was sad (though the real sobbing came during the riot scene), but I felt like people who hadn't been touched by their relationship through reading the books may have been confused. Luckily Lawrence's great acting backed it up a little.

Hunger Games Wikia

As for the propaganda, the movie shown during the reaping, I would have put that at the very beginning of the film rather than stuck it in the middle of a scene already established to be tense. The text at the beginning was fine, but I thought that it would have been a nice(?) throwback to when news and propaganda films would be shown in American movie theaters before the show at around the time of World War II. Then, after that, cut to Katniss talking with Prim before she heads out to the woods.

And so there goes the tale of someone who is probably the last person to see the movie in theaters for the first time, a whole 46 days after the premiere!

P.S. More Haymitch next time, please!

Fantastic Covers Friday (4): Missing by Becky Citra

Fantastic Covers Friday is a weekly meme over here at Brave New Shelf where I highlight beautiful covers that I find, from both old books and new, from young adult books.

This Week:

Missing by Becky Citra

Cover design by Teresa Bubela

Text design and typesetting by Jasmine Devonshire

Cover photography by Getty Images

Sometimes the prettiest books aren't the ones published by major companies or written by New York Times bestsellers. What draws me to this cover is the ambiguity: you can't tell if the girl is hugging the horse, and we just can't see her, or if she's hiding from the camera behind the horse. The fact that the type fades out, literally begins to disappear, fits in nicely with the title itself.