Teaser Tuesdays (3): The Boy Recession by Flynn Meaney

My Teaser Tuesdays for this week comes from The Boy Recession by Flynn Meaney:

"They have to reexamine their priorities."

"You mean lower their standards?"

-page 37

Goodreads - Amazon

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Teaser Tuesdays is hosted over at Should Be Reading.

Moving in Day!

I've been lagging in my posts recently, I know, but I have a good reason: college! I move in on Thursday, August 30th, and have been packing and planning and getting all loose ends taken care of before I leave. Posting will resume as soon as things even out a bit, so thanks for your patience!

Camp NaNoWriMo Week Four (8/18 - 8/25)

30,351

What it should be: 38,709 (as of midnight, 8/25)

Favorite lines:

I’m halfway through a waffle cone of cherry ice cream when my phone rings. My heart nearly jumped out of my chest, it had to have been my parents, or Penelope’s parents, wondering why the heck we weren’t in school. I check the phone’s screen cautiously, exhaling when I see Fran’s number. I answer.
“Hey, Fran. I can’t talk a lot, I’m in school.”
“Oh, quit it with the bullshit, deary, I saw you and your little friend at that pep rally in the center of town earlier,” Fran says from the other end. I blush, thankful that she can’t see me now.

Biggest stressor: I'm worried more about finishing my packing for school, getting all (or at least most) of my required reading done, and finishing all of my pleasure reading before I have to return all of those books at the library. That, along with going and buying the things that I'll need, making lists for more things I'll need, and communicating with my roommate has kept me really busy. My drive to write has been pretty low.

How I feel about this week: Kind of crummy, but I'm still pressing on. I haven't given up yet, and are kicking it into overdrive to finish this thing before I leave next Thursday.

Want to join me for Camp NaNoWriMo? Sign up here!

Feature and Follow Friday (10)

Feature and Follow Friday is hosted over at Parajunkee and Allison Can Read. This week's question:

Q: Worst cover? What is the worst cover of a book that you've read and loved?

I... do not know who made this decision. The hardcover copy of Leviathan has such a beautiful cover but they removed it for the paperback so that the first could match the models on the second and third books. If you ask me, the second and third should have been more like the first.

I also have no idea where Alek got a pilot's cap/goggles; I'm pretty sure he's not wearing anything like it in any of the book's illustrations. Go figure.

For reference, here was the original cover:

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Feel free to leave a comment or follow any way you please! (Twitter - Goodreads - RSS)

Review: Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

From Goodreads:

Everybody gets to be supermodel gorgeous. What could be wrong with that? Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can't wait. Not for her license -- for turning pretty. In Tally's world, your sixteenth birthday brings an operation that turns you from a repellent ugly into a stunningly attractive pretty and catapults you into a high-tech paradise where your only job is to have a really great time. In just a few weeks Tally will be there. 

But Tally's new friend Shay isn't sure she wants to be pretty. She'd rather risk life on the outside. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world and it isn't very pretty. The authorities offer Tally the worst choice she can imagine: find her friend and turn her in, or never turn pretty at all. The choice Tally makes changes her world forever.

I had to sit on this one for a while. It wasn't as cut and dry for me as the Leviathan series (seriously some of the best young adult fiction I've read), but at the same time I wouldn't be opposed to recommending it to a friend.

The premise is intriguing and stands out against what I see as a lot of repeat themes coming out in dystopian lit. today. A lot of authors, especially newer ones, have been forgetting that for a society to be dystopian the people of that society play a part in the oppression. The people considered "uglies" in the book want this operation to become pretty because they've been taught from birth that they'll be inferior if they don't. No on brainwashed them, they did that to themselves.

Tally, the main character, is where this review starts to get a little negative. Basically, how the same author created her, description to follow, and Deryn Sharp (strong, quick-witted, loyal, brave, and one of my favorite characters ever) is beyond my comprehension.

I understand Tally's desire to become a pretty, and her repulsion of anything that implies different. That makes sense; she's spent her entire life in an environment that's taught her just this. What I don't get is how she's able to snap out of it so quickly. In a month's time she breaks away from everything she's ever been taught, everything she's ever believed, and is totally okay with that. That just doesn't happen.

After a certain point Tally's specialness became a bit grating. I mean, she's the first to make it to the smoke on her own? People never give gifts in the smoke, but she gets one after only a month? No one ever learns the truth about the operation, but oop, there she goes learning it after just a few weeks of being away?

And her romance with David was just bizarre, and definitely a bit forced. She loves him after about a month of knowing him, and that isn't even the creepy part. Towards the end of the book a trajedy happens to David and Tally becomes upset not once, but twice, for the time he's spending with his mother. She can't comprehend why she can't be by his side 24/7.

Still, the world-building more than makes up for Tally's odd sense of entitlement. Uglies has a very interesting society, and I'm looking forward for the next book to explore it more. Westerfeld also leaves us with quite a nice ending that segues perfectly into a sequel, one that I plan on picking up soon.

Amazon, Goodreads, Author's Website

Title: Uglies (Uglies series #1)

Author: Scott Westerfeld

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing

Publication Date: February 8th, 2005

Page #: 425

ISBN: 0689865384

Reviewed for Dystopian August (2012) over at Presenting Lenore!

Waiting on Wednesday (20): The Dark Unwinding by Sharon Cameron

From Goodreads:

A spine-tingling tale of steampunk and spies, intrigue and heart-racing romance!
When Katharine Tulman's inheritance is called into question by the rumor that her eccentric uncle is squandering away the family fortune, she is sent to his estate to have him committed to an asylum. But instead of a lunatic, Katharine discovers a genius inventor with his own set of rules, who employs a village of nine hundred people rescued from the workhouses of London.
Katharine is now torn between protecting her own inheritance and preserving the peculiar community she grows to care for deeply. And her choices are made even more complicated by a handsome apprentice, a secretive student, and fears for her own sanity.
As the mysteries of the estate begin to unravel, it is clear that not only is her uncle's world at stake, but also the state of England as Katharine knows it. With twists and turns at every corner, this heart-racing adventure will captivate readers with its intrigue, thrills, and romance.

Publisher: Scholastic Press
Publication Date: September 1st, 2012
Amazon, Goodreads, Author's website

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I'm a big fan of steampunk but don't indulge in it nearly as often as I should. I mean, I love history and sci-fi, so why not mash the two together to get a whole new awesome subgenre? The darker elements of this story, what I garner from the description, have me interested, and who doesn't love an eccentric genius? (I'm a fan of Nikola Tesla myself.)

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Waiting on Wednesday is hosted over at Breaking the Spine.

Camp NaNoWriMo Week Three (8/11 - 8/17)

19, 093

What it should be: 27, 419 (as of midnight, 8/11)

Favorite lines:

“You have reached Francine Weathers at the Red Efts Nature Education Center. For visitors information and hours, please press one. To leave an administrative related message, please press two. If you would like an interview regarding that insufferable book with our lovely park as a setting, please lift yourself by the seat of your pants and kick your own ass out of my town. Thank you for your cooperation.”

Biggest stressor: Remembering to write! I've had such a busy week; my family got back from camping Monday, I had a friend over to watch a movie Tuesday, Wednesday night I saw Spider-Man, Thursday night I practiced driving and spent the day reading, and today I took (and passed!) my driver's test and saw Paranorman with some friends. Writing comes easiest for me at night, but I know that not writing during the day is no excuse, but I'm usually doing other things then (read: procrastinating.)

How I feel about this week: Neutral. I'm not any further or behind than I planned to be. Writing is still coming very easily for me, I just keep putting it off! I hope to spend more time writing tomorrow, the house should be pretty quiet.

Want to join me for Camp NaNoWriMo? Sign up here!