Emy's Book Blog

After surviving a brutal attack on her former home, Tris is changed person. Wracked by guilt and grief, she becomes more and more reckless as she attempts to find herself. But everything she knows is a lie, and Tris must make a choice that, either way, could cost her everything.

Well, I was actually pretty wary about reading this book, because I thought it would suffer from second-book syndrome and would be kind of terrible. But, actually, I enjoyed it more than Divergent - which seems to be an unpopular opinion, judging by the other reviews.

It took a little while to get into this one, as the narrative jumps straight in where Divergent left off, without any recap. Considering I read the first book last August, I had to Google a plot summary - thankfully, Veronica Roth provides one for us on her website. I don't enjoy wading through summary, so this was good on some levels, and would probably be amazing if the books were read one after the other. Considering the wait between releases though, perhaps this was not the wisest decision. I'll withold judgement on that until after a reread.

The main problem I had in Divergent was with the world building - the society just didn't make sense to me. Why on earth would anyone choose to build a society that way, anyway? Weirdly, in this book, I felt as though a lot of my problems and concerns about the society were addressed. Towards the end of the book, some of my questions actually began to be explained. The society still doesn't make sense to me, but now I'm actually feeling pretty hopeful that all will be explained in the third book. This excites me, especially as I'd written off any hope of coherent world-building after the first book.

A lot of people complain about Four's behaviour in this book. I'm not sure what the problem is. He wasn't an asshole! I felt as though all of his behaviour was completely justified, considering the way Tris was behaving and what was happening to them. I don't know. Is it just me that feels that way?

Tris is very different in this book. She's grieving, she's consumed by guilt, and fear, and with wanting to do the right thing but not knowing what the right thing is. Some people might hate this change, but I feel that it's rather realistic. After everything that's happened to her, she's not going to be the same girl that she always was. How can she be? How can anyone be? She's not indestructible. The second problem with her is that she does an awful lot of climbing and things with a wounded (shot) shoulder. In fact, she does a hell of a lot of things she probably shouldn't be able to do physically (being injured for most of the book), but I'm willing to let that slide in the name of adrenaline, as it mostly happens when she's desperate and might die otherwise. This is fiction, after all. It is unrealistic, but surely not impossible. (This did contribute slightly to the loss of a star, though, since I'd have liked her to struggle a bit more or at least recover more before everything.)

This book also served to change my opinions of certain characters. Edward, for example. My opinion of him changed drastically. I think that this is quite a feat for a writer to pull off, so I applaud Roth for that.

Also, Roth treats death realistically in this book. There is a war going on. People will die. People will die needlessly, without fanfare, without time to say goodbye. And without long confrontations, even if the person has been the main villain throughout the book. Some people might find this frustrating, but I liked it. I like death to be treated realistically, especially in a war. Especially in YA, where authors too often coddle their readers. (Ah, but some deaths hurt my soul. ;_; )

Some reviews say that not much happen in this book, but I thought that plenty happened. Sure, there was a lot of introspection from Tris, and a lot of personal character development too, but there was also a lot of action. I thought so, anyway.

All in all, I'm looking forward to Allegient. I've enjoyed the series so far, and I'm quite confident that the third book will not be a disappointment. If it can explain the world-building to me, it might surpass both of its predecessors. :)

More like a 3.5.

J has always felt like a boy mistakenly born as a girl. Yet, as he grew up, his body began to betray him and J started covering up his body, keeping himself invisible. But after being deserted by the best friend he thought would always be by his side, J decides that he's done hiding - it's time to be who he really is.

LGBTQ novels tend to be either 'coming out' novels or 'realisation' novels. Either the protagonist comes out to family, friends and the wider world, or they learn something about themselves - their sexual identity (whether gay/lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, asexual, etc) or their gender identity. I Am J is no exeption. It is a coming out novel and, during the course of the novel, J comes out as transgender (specifically FtM) to the important people in his life. There's nothing wrong with these types of plots, of course; I just wish sometimes that the coming out/realisation could take a back seat to a different kind of plot, so that LGBTQ individuals could become more prominent in mainstream fiction. Like, imagine The Hunger Games if Katniss was attracted to girls. Or Harry Potter if Harry was gay. Imagine.

That aside, this book handled a difficult issue well. J felt like a real teenager, albeit not wholly likeable. He made mistakes, he was an insensitive asshole, he internalised all his pain and then lashed out. These things all contributed to make him a believable character, even though it meant that it took until the latter half of the book for me to actually like him. To be honest, not many of the characters were likeable. Melissa most of all, I think. I didn't like her much at all (which is a shame, because she is the most prominent cisgendered character and I felt a little like cisgendered characters were portrayed in a bad light). Blue, also, wasn't that likeable, in the end.

I suppose Zak and Chanelle are the closest things to likeable this book gets (but both of them are trans*).

I really did enjoy the stylistic choices in this novel, however. Beam tackles third person, which could have been very confusing, but she launches straight into using male pronouns, even when J hadn't entirely figured out he was transgendered yet. I felt that this worked very well.

The only thing I didn't like, stylistically, was that, a couple of times, Beam head-hopped into J's mother's head. This might not have been so bad, but then J was referred to as 'her daughter' in the course of the third person narration. I didn't like the fact that the narration was misgendering him - it is one thing when characters do it, but another when it is done in narration. I felt that the head-hopping was unnecessary.

Also, I found it unbelievable that J did not know anything about chest-binding and testosterone (T) injections at his age, although Beam does attempt to explain it. I guess the reason it was done that way was to allow readers to learn along with him, but it just didn't ring true.

What did ring true, however, was the fact that J believed T would be a cure all for all his problems, even though it is just the start of the process. He fixated on something to keep him going, and that's human nature. That's one of the things that made him so believable as a character.

All in all, this was a good read and gave a real insight into how a transgendered teen might feel through the coming out process. Due to some flaws and unlikeable characters (that grow on you somewhat), it wasn't the best book I've ever read, but I did enjoy it. I recommend it to anyone wanting to learn more about transgender, though this is a work of fiction and should be taken with a pinch of salt. :)

Gemma, sixteen, is taken from the bustling airport in Bangkok and stolen away to the deep, endless Australian wilderness. She is determined to survive, to escape, but the Australian desert proves itself to be much more dangerous than her captor. Ty is dangerous too, however. Strong. Unstable. But there is more to him than meets the eye, and Gemma finds herself fighting feelings for him. Is this real love, or just Stockholm Syndrome?

Stolen is written in the form of a letter from Gemma to her kidnapper, Ty, in the weeks leading up to his trial. I think that's part of the reason why this story is so compelling. It sucks you right in and doesn't let you go until the very last page.

The first line? You saw me before I saw you.

Yes, the whole time the word 'you' is reiterated, stated over and over until the reader feels a kind of kinship with Ty. You can imagine him reading the letter. The whole story seems more real, and personal, and drawn in painful technicolour. Between that and the first person narration, this story gets under your skin from the word go.

It is one of the most beautiful and disturbing books I've read in a long while.

Against my will, I started to like Ty. I started to sympathise with him. I started to see him as Gemma's love interest. It was like, slowly but surely, I was falling in love with him myself. Like a kind of Stockholm Syndrome, like a shadow of the emotions Gemma herself feels.

And yes, he was a dangerous man. Yes, what he did was terrible and wrong. But damn, Lucy Christopher does a hell of a good job of making him seem sympathetic. Of making it believable that the young girl he has stolen could ever feel anything but terror and hatred for him.

It's so weird. I kind of wanted them together by the end, despite knowing how wrong wrong wrong it all was. Gah.

Gemma was a strong character, despite everything. I mean, in fantasy we get kickass heroines and strong women who can fight just as well as any man, but Gemma is a real teenager. She's stricken by terror, by culture shock, by the sheer need to survive even if that means giving up. She does what most people would do in that situation, and that's what makes her a strong character. She's real.

Stolen is quite a slow-paced, lazy kind of read, with a few short bursts of action. The Australian Outback is as much a character as Ty or Gemma, and the leisurely descriptions of the desert were vivid and painstakingly imagined. It is obvious the environment had a big effect on Gemma and, if I'm honest, it had an effect on me as well. I wish I could see it for myself, despite the heat, the cold and the danger. One day. It was just so richly imagined I want to see if the real thing lives up to the pictures in my head.

This will not be for everyone, obviously. Firstly, if you're looking for an action-adventure type novel, with fast-paced action and fight scenes, this probably isn't for you. If you're looking for a beautiful romance or a happily ever after, probably not for you either. Because of its theme of abduction, I'd slap a big trigger warning on it, especially because Gemma imagines all these things Ty could do to her. Lucy Christopher doesn't hold back on the details, either - though Ty never touches her or makes her do anything against her will, Gemma has quite a fertile imagination, and the anticipation of bad things happening is enough for anyone to be triggered by.

The reason I read this book was that it started out as part of a PhD thesis, and I'm about to begin work on my own. As such, this book is quite an inspiration for me, a benchmark I can aspire to.

I think this will stay with me for a long time after I take it back to the library, and I definitely plan on getting a copy of my very own.

Fifty Shades Darker continues where Fifty Shades of Grey leaves off. Between crazy ex-subs, Mrs Robinson and her new boss, Ana may be in way over her head.

Well, at least this one attempted a plot, I suppose. Multiple plots in fact. Crazy ex sub who somehow manages to get her hands on a gun? Check. Christian's ex-Domme turned business partner? Check. Crazy boss who wants to get in Ana's pants? Check.

Let's start with Ana's boss. With a name like Jack Hyde (hurr hurr), he couldn't really be anything but a villain. And, to be honest, when his attempts at having his way with Ana failed, E L James should have left it at that. But no! He sabotages Christian's helicopter and now is out for REVENGE! Dun dun duuuuun. I literally laughed at the end of Fifty Shades Darker - seriously? Is this seriously happening? Damn, I'm going to need a break before I attempt book three. It seems it's going to be full of melodrama.

And then there's Leila, one of Christian's ex-subs. Personally, I found her too over-the-top crazy. She evidently needs a lot of help and then Ana's reaction is automatic jealousy? What the hell, Ana? Jealousy should probably not be your over-riding emotion there. Though why Christian felt it appropriate to give the girl a bath, I don't know.

And then (it seems like a never-ending list), there's Elena Lincoln, not-so-fondly referred to as Mrs Robinson. Weirdly, despite the fact I majorly disapprove of her and Christian's relaltionship when he was fifteen, for most of the book she actually seemed like a reasonable character. I thought the least Ana could do was talk to her, and that both her and Christian were being unreasonable about the whole thing. Then, out of nowhere, she turns into a crazy psycho-bitch and it turns out ANA WAS RIGHT ALL ALONG. *rolls eyes* What. The. Fuck.

Not to mention this book takes place in the course of little over a week and Ana and Christian go from being split up to being engaged to be married. This has got to be the most insane, melodramatic week EVER. Plus, was it just me who felt that Ana and Christian's relationship was extremely rushed? They barely know each other. I foresee much drama in book three.

Also, the sex scenes were dull and repetitive. So much so that I was relieved when James faded to black on a few of them. Maybe she got bored too. On top of that, Ana referring to 'down there' makes her sound like a prepubescent girl. Call it what it is, damn it.

The worst offence, in my view, wasn't any of the above, however. It was this line: "Lover's don't need safewords." What the hell are you on, Grey?! If you're going to do any type of 'kinky fuckery', as you put it, a safeword is a MUST. A MUST. *clutches face and rolls around on the floor* Jesus Christ, this line made me boil with rage. Gah.

Also, once again, James does a great disservice to the BDSM community by focusing so much on the fact it's Christian's issues that make him enjoy BDSM. Please stop tarring the BDSM community with the 'issues' brush.

It wasn't all bad, though. I still enjoy the email exchanges, especially the way the subjects change and the subtle little changes to their signatures. To be honest, the times they were communicating by email were the times when their relationship seemed to be most genuine. (Even if Ana seemed to do minimal work and spent most of her time emailing Christian on her work(!) email.)

Also, like the first book, I had a hard time stopping reading even though it was so frustrating. A bit like a train wreck, I couldn't look away.

I'm going to read the third book eventually, but I think I need a bit of a break before I do.

In One Person is the story of William "Bill" Abbott, through his sexual confusion as an adolescent in the fifties, continuing on through the AIDs epidemic and right through to the
present. It doesn't have a plot, as such, but is the reminiscences of an old man.

I don't really know how I feel about this book. I'm torn between two stars and three stars, but I'll give it the benefit of the doubt because it was kind of compelling (in places) and, overall, well-written.

Chronology-wise, this book is a nightmare. It jumps all over the place, back and forth, with little warning. Sometimes, I really had to work hard to work out where I was in the timeline, which isn't something I want to be doing when I'm reading a book. It would have been preferable to me if the timeline didn't jump around so much, though overall the book did follow from when he was young to when he was old.

I did enjoy the characters. They were sharply drawn and full of life (though you could say some of them are a little over the top - almost caricatures). They were enjoyable to read about, albeit not always believable. I especially loved Gee. It was a shame she was only in the last two chapters, really.

Believability was this novel's biggest problem. Did Irving really expect the reader to believe that so many gay/transgender/cross-dressing men happened to be in that one school in that one small town? Or that cross-dressing/being gay had anything to do with genetics? Bill's maternal grandfather is a cross-dresser, and his father is a cross-dressing gay man (with NO influence on Bill whatsoever because he isn't THERE), and we're kind of expected to believe that this is partly why Bill likes wearing a bra to bed and is bisexual. It just seemed too... neat. Real life doesn't work like this.

Also, the whole Kittredge being transgender felt rather out of the blue to me.

Also, I'm pretty sure having several characters who have speech disorders that work in exactly the same way isn't plausible either. I'm sure there are people in real life that have trouble pronouncing words because of psychological reasons, but two sexually different males in the same year at school, plus another character later? Hard to swallow (so to speak). Also, the way Bill always referred to 'the penis word' or 'the time word' or 'the shadow word' got old fast.


Whilst I'm complaining about things, the ending felt rather... rushed and abrupt to me. I turned the page expecting to see a bit more, but nothing. I don't know, I was just left feeling as though the whole story had been kind of pointless. Nothing had got resolved, as such. This is where the novel falls down, I think; the whole book kind of read like a description of sexual differences: he was bisexual, he had gay friends, his cousin was a lesbian, his grandfather was a cross-dresser, he was turned on by transgender (sorry, transsexual, as Bill puts it) individuals, and, oh, look at how intolerant society is. Yes, society is still intolerant (less so than the fifties, I'm sure), but I wish he'd used more of a story to tell me.

But, you know, I didn't hate this novel.

The sexual scenes in the novel were well-written. They seemed rather real and natural, as opposed to the over-the-top sexiness of the erotica genre. This actually made them more erotic, in a way. The scene with Elaine and Bill near the beginning of the novel is a prime example of this; despite being rather awkward and clumsy, the scene is ultimately erotic.

Also, the AIDs epidemic was handled well. It didn't come until the latter part of the novel, but when it did, it was hard-hitting and really captured the brutal, merciless nature of the disease.

It's hard to really sum up my feelings about this book. It wasn't a terrible read, despite plausibility issues, and I did like it to a certain extent. To be honest, the whole book was well-written. That's not a matter of debate, really. But just because a writer can use language well doesn't mean he can tell a good story and, on this occasion, I feel like John Irving fell flat. Despite this, it was quite a compelling read, once the initial hurdle of getting into the book was overcome.

As a character study and a piece of writing (technically), this book ticks most of the boxes. As a piece of fiction, not so much. Based on In One Person, I'm not sure if I'd pick up another John Irving novel, though I might one day.

Do I recommend it? I'm conflicted. It's one of those novels, I think, that you need to try for yourself.

The Greek ship is coming to Camp Jupiter. Annabeth is worried about her reunion with her boyfriend, Percy Jackson, but she also has other, more sinister worries. She carries a gift from her mother, which was bestowed upon her with the words: Follow the Mark of Athena. Avenge me.

Firstly, WHAT WAS WITH THAT ENDING?! GAH! WHY?! WHAT?! I HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL OCTOBER?! WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME, RICK?!

*lets out a breath* Calm. I'm calm.

Now that's out of the way, I think that Rick Riordan has really stepped up his game with this book. Everything is starting to come together, and the dangers are mounting. It turns this book into a high velocity read with hardly any breathing room (and the infrequent, quiet scenes are amazing and full of emotion). The scene with Annabeth and Percy and the bay doors, for example, or Hazel and Leo and Hazel's past. I don't normally like books that leap from one adventure to another, as I said in my review of The Lightning Thief, but Rick Riordan makes it work. These are not ordinary kids. They are both dangerous and in danger.

Keeping track of a cast of seven was well-handled, too. Riordan chose four of the seven to tell the story through, and made sure the other three still had some starring roles. I was hoping for Jason to have a point of view (mainly because I wanted to see what he thought of Percy), but alas. Hopefully that will change in the next book. I'm actually kind of rooting for Nico to have a point of view, but he's not one of the seven so that's probably a long shot.

I also enjoy the fact that Riordan can have romantic subplots going on without them taking over the whole of the story. The relationships in the series feel very natural and real. I hope that will continue.

BUT THAT ENDING, WHY?!

I was glad finally to meet Hercules/Heracles, too. He's been mentioned enough times. I also love when heroes turn out to be disappointing! Ha!

All in all, I really enjoyed this book, and I am DISTRAUGHT that I have to wait until October for the next one. :(

Percy Jackson wakes with amnesia and finds himself at a camp for Roman demigods. The only thing he remembers from his past is a name: Annabeth.

I was a bit apprehensive about starting this one, as I had got used to the viewpoints being Jason, Leo and Piper. Even though Percy is once again a viewpoint character, I hadn't got along great with his viewpoint before. Fortunately, any teething problems Percy and I had had with our relationship were well and truly swept away with this second novel in the Heroes of Olympus series.

I needn't have worried, really.

Frank, Hazel and Percy proved to be just as interesting to read about as their predecessors. I admit, I was a bit turned off by the name Frank (I don't know why), but it grew on me as the novel continued.

I really enjoyed the description of the Roman camp, both the layout of the buildings and the organisation of the legion. It brought back a lot of memories of Classical Civilisations and college. I also enjoyed seeing the Roman incarnation of Ares, Mars. Mars was actually a lot more likeable than Ares, and even Percy comes to that realisation. Haha.

I also loved the character of Ella. If I were immortal, I would probably be just like her. Surrounded by books, slightly crazy and spouting sentences from all the books I'd ever read. Yep. I hope she makes more appearances in the later books, as she was a very different character than most I've read about.

I was glad Nico was in this book too.

Looking forward to reading the next book in the series, though the end of this one makes me feel uneasy about what is to come.

The second Great Prophecy has begun to be fulfilled. Percy Jackson has disappeared and Hera has been kidnapped. New heroes, Jason, Piper and Leo have to work together to save the day, but something much worse than the titans is stirring.

Firstly, wow.

Secondly, this series seems to be shaping up to be straddling the middle grade/young adult line, whereas the Percy Jackson was much more firmly in the middle grade camp. For one thing, the characters are older, around the fifteen/sixteen mark. There is a lot more potential for romance, and all the young adult baggage that comes with that. The themes of this series seem to be darker and more forbidding as well.

For some reason, I felt a lot more connected and invested in the characters in The Lost Hero than I ever did in the Percy Jackson series. It feels to me that Rick Riordan either seems more comfortable writing in third person, or he has learnt a lot from writing the Percy Jackson series. Possibly both. From the very first chapter, I cared about what was happening to Jason, Piper and Leo. It could just be me that feels this way about the two series, but this is a personal review anyway.

I'm very excited about the introduction of Roman mythology. I miss studying Classics very much, and now Riordan has brought both Greek and Roman stuff together and I'm a very happy reader. I'm looking very much forward to more of the Roman side of things in the next book (in which I'm assuming we'll be with Percy in the Roman camp, from the title). When Jason started saying words like 'praetor' it sent shivers up my spine. (God, I'm sad.)

I think the whole Roman half of things has been well-integrated. It could have easily appeared to have been shoehorned in because Riordan suddenly had the idea, but all of the inconsistencies have been satisfactorially explained. I think so, anyway. I also like the idea that the gods have Greek and Roman aspects that are slightly different from each other. That's a very interesting idea to me.

I wasn't sure I would like the characters in this one, considering they were different from the characters I'd become used to, but actually, I loved them. Jason, Piper and Leo were all very different from Percy, Annabeth, Grover, Nico, etc, though Jason and Percy have similar heroic qualities. But Jason is a LOT more serious and... dangerous than Percy ever was.

Some people have said that Jason is a bit of a Gary Stu, in that he's the son of Jupiter/Zeus and he's actually done a load of important things before this book, but actually I really like that. It shows that he's had a life outside these books, and that he's worked really hard to get where he was only to have it all snatched away from him (including his memories). Poor Jason, it must be so confusing for him.

I really like the characters of Piper and Leo, too. Leo I love because of his ingenious ways of solving problems, and Piper because she is a complete anti-stereotype. She's a child of Aphrodite, but she's so different from the shallow glimpses we saw in the Percy Jackson books. I'm enjoying seeing the children of other gods than we did in the first series, too. :)

Speaking of other gods, I'm really pleased that Hera/Juno is getting a bit of a chance to shine. She gets a bad reputation from most of the myths, so it'll be interesting to see how Riordan handles the fact she is now Jason's patron.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, and I feel as though Riordan has stepped up his game. I'm very excited to read the next book and to see where this series goes! :)

This is the last book in the Percy Jackson series, and I wasn't disappointed. Percy struggles to save Olympus as the conclusion to the prophecy rapidly approaches.

Firstly, this whole series of books was only four stars for me. I really enjoyed reading them all, but I never really grew any sort of emotional attachment to any of the characters (except Percy, to some extent, but only because we were in his head the whole time). Which sounds awful, really. I don't know why. I'm not sure if it was because of Percy's narration, or because the characters seemed a bit flat, or if I just didn't relate to them. Considering the acclaim this series has received, this is probably a quite personal problem with the books. Despite this, I still enjoyed them.

This book also convinced me not to shelve the series as young adult, because it very clearly is marketed at the younger end of the spectrum (9-12), as, although there are some dark themes, the books are not really mature. There is death, for example, but it's dealt with quite distantly. Percy barely ever sees death first hand (if we don't include monsters), and it's not dwelt upon. Riordan does not patronise his readers, as he does deal with some difficult themes, but there is not the complexity there to class the books as young adult (in my opinion). This is not a bad thing, and Riordan's made it quite clear his books are middle grade, so yeah. Just my thoughts, as I've seen loads of people shelve these books as young adult.

Percy, even though we're told he's sixteen, really isn't any more mature than he was at twelve. To be honest, if he didn't need to age for the purposes of a) continuity and b) the prophecy, Riordan could probably just have kept him at twelve and it wouldn't have mattered. There is no struggle through puberty in the series and, in this book in particular, there is some interest in girls but it is very naive. See the points above, really. This is the only fault I can find with the series and, to be honest, I can see Riordan's reasons for characterising Percy as he did.

Focusing now on this book...

The action in The Last Olympian was practically non-stop. A war had to be fought. I thought that this was handled quite well, as Riordan nicely captured the confusion and chaos of battle. And he also managed to capture the quiet spots, the waiting. Also, people died. This is war, and for it to be believable, people had to die.

I also enjoyed finding out more about Luke's past, and Nico's past. There were quite a few flashbacks, but they were integrated well into the story and did not seem like a distraction.

The curse of Achilles was a fascinating addition to Percy's character, and I'm looking forward to seeing how that is continued with in the new series. (I assume Percy will be in them in a less major role (I hope).)

I did see the plot twists involving Luke and Rachel quite a bit before they actually happened, which is a down side, but I'm keeping in mind these books are aimed at 9-12 year olds and they are perhaps not as attuned to foreshadowing as I am. And there was some heavy foreshadowing (at least, I thought so).

The ending was brilliant. This series has been wrapped up nicely, but now there is a new prophecy which leaves things open for new heroes and new books. That's always exciting. And it didn't seem forced or contrived at all; it just seemed like a natural progression to have a new great prophecy after the last one had been fulfilled. Dun dun duuuun.

I don't really have much more to say than that, other than this was a worthy finale to what has been an excellent series of books.

I'm planning on leaving it a while before starting the next series of books, as I think that reading it straight after these ones would not be a brilliant idea (as I'll be stuck in Percy Jackson mode and might not be able to like the new characters). I'm not sure if I'll be able to stick to that, though!

Artemis has been kidnapped, along with Annabeth, and Percy travels with Artemis's Hunters to save them.

This book follows on from the first two, but I don't think it does it well. The beginning chapter, for instance, takes place months after the cliffhanger ending of book two. I was very confused about the whole thing, and even had to double check that my copy of book two wasn't missing a chapter. It just seemed very unintuitive, and left the reader floundering to piece together events between the two books.

For example, Thalia. We missed the crucial building of the relationship between Thalia and Percy, we missed Thalia's reorientation into the world, and we missed Thalia being introduced as a character. She was just sprung on us, fully-formed, as Percy's 'friend'. I found this rather unsettling, like I'd missed a load of stuff. I hate when authors do that. One more chapter at the end of the last book would have got rid of this problem entirely.

On the other hand, no reviews on here that I've read have complained about this at all, so perhaps it's just me.

Also, Rick, it's Heracles, not Hercules. Hercules is the Roman version. It seems quite weird that he got this wrong, considering the knowledge of Greek mythology that has been displayed so far throughout the series. I get kids are more likely to know Heracles as Hercules, but someone could have easily corrected Percy when he mentioned him. "Oh, no, it's Heracles. Hercules is what the Romans called him." See? Simple.

Once I was past the beginning, this book, thankfully, only got better, and I really enjoyed the adventure.

Nico seems like a very interesting character from his appearance in this book, and I hope we get to see more of him. I'm a bit worried about the role he'll play in the future, but we shall see.

I also liked the introduction of more of the gods, particularly Apollo. I'm quite fond of Apollo outside of this series, so it was interesting to see how he was handled.

And then there's Bessie. :) Enough said about that. I love Bessie.

The series seems to be getting darker and darker (but not too dark), so I'm interested to see where Riordan takes us next!

After the slightly disappointing third book, let me just say that I was in no way disappointed by this on. Particularly as it involved Daedalus and the labyrinth (and Icarus), which are some of my favourite parts of Greek mythology. *rolls around happily*

This novel was very fast paced and action packed; something was always happening, monsters were always attacking, etc etc. This means that I raced through the book at breakneck pace, except when I took a break to babysit my little brother. Usually, having action scene upon action scene is something that bugs me about a book, but in this case I think it worked. Things are getting more dangerous in Percy's world, and Riordan does not let you forget it.

One issue I do have with this series is that Percy does not feel as though he's aged at all, even though three years have passed since book one. There is a little bit of confusion concerning girls, but he still feels like a silly preteen about it all. Maybe this is a sign of the books being meant for a younger audience, but, I think, if a protagonist is aging with the series, it should feel like that. The books should feel a bit more mature. They feel more dangerous, yes, but not mature.

That aside, there were a lot of things I really enjoyed about this one. I liked the whole Calypso episode (thought it broke my heart a little), and I really enjoyed seeing Nico develop as a character. Though I wonder how this series would have been with Nico as a main character, rather than Pecy. Interesting thought, I think. (Though I do like Percy as a protagonist, don't get me wrong!)

I can't believe the next book in the series is the last one. I'm worrying a little over the safety of the characters, as I'm sure some people are going to die. More people, I should say. Riordan is quite good at making the deaths of even minor characters quite hard-hitting, even if they've only been mentioned in passing.

I'm looking forward to seeing how this series ends, and am very glad I waited so long to read these books so I don't have to wait to see what happens next!

This is the second installment in the Percy Jackson series, and I was in no way disappointed.

In this one, Percy needs to find the Golden Fleece and save his best friend, Grover, from the Cyclops Polyphemus.

I enjoyed this book a little more than the first one as it seemed as though Percy struggled a lot more when facing monsters. He didn't win as easily as he did in the first book, and someone almost always came to help him. This made him much less of a Gary Stu, which I was grateful for.

Also, we saw some flaws in his character (and I'm not talking about dyslexia and ADHD). He was ashamed of Tyson, and often thought himself better than him. He realised the error of his ways by the end of the novel, but it was actually quite an unpleasant facet of his character and I thought it was handled really well.

Being a big fan of The Odyssey, I loved all the bits with Polyphemus. And, as usual, I loved all the references to Greek myths and echoes of heroes that have come before. For example, I loved the fact Percy clung to the underbelly of a sheep to get in the cave.

I also enjoyed the character development of Clarisse, and I hope more comes of it. We shall see, I guess.

And I loved Hermes! Just putting that out there.

There was nothing inherently wrong with this book, but it wasn't quite five star material for me. Nevertheless, it was a great, action-packed read with humour and adventure, and a great sequel to the first book.

I'm looking forward to reading the rest (especially now I've persuaded my little sister to buy the rest of Rick Riordan's novels. Mwahaha.)!

Being a big fan of Greek mythology, I was excited to read this series. My younger sister got the box set for Christmas and I got fed up with waiting for her to read them first, so now I've stolen them. :D

Percy Jackson is the son of a Greek god - a demigod, though they are known as half-bloods. This would be a shock to anyone, but an even bigger shock is the fact that Zeus believes that Percy has stolen his master lightning bolt. And you really don't want the God of the Sky angry at you. Percy needs to find the lightning bolt before war erupts between the gods.

First things first, I really enjoyed this book in general. But there were a few problems with it that stopped me from giving it the full five stars.

Firstly, Riordan missed a full stop from a sentence in the same paragraph. Shoddy editing? Guh.

Secondly, am I the only one who thought that Percy beat everything a little too easily? He's twelve, damn it. :/ Especially Ares. I mean, seriously. Okay, so he gets himself into a lot of scrapes, but I was never truly worried about him because he seemed to get out of everything so easily. Sword fighting, for example, came really naturally to him.

Also, the foreshadowing was kind of heavily slapped on. I worked out the Big Bad AND the twist at the end long before Percy and his friends. I understand that this is a young adult book, but I don't think that the age group this is aimed at is that stupid. Maybe it's just me, though.

And the nickname Smelly Gabe made me shudder every time I read it. How puerile.

Aside from those things, though, I really did enjoy this book, and I'm very excited to read the others.

I enjoyed the modern translations of the Greek myths, particularly Medusa and the satyrs. It is interesting how they have been forced to adapt to survive, and how modern society is shaping the way they do things. On a similar note, the fact that World War II (and other such things) was caused by demigods is a very interesting idea.

I also liked the idea of Camp Half-Blood, and the fact you live in different cabins depending on who is your mother/father. Seeing the different traits inherent in all of the children of the gods was interesting too. I hope that we explore more of that in future books, and I also hold out hope that Percy will meet a child of Ares who isn't inherently unpleasant. That'd be nice, though perhaps it is the same futile hope as Harry Potter meeting a Slytherin (ie still at school) who isn't inherently unpleasant (JK Rowling missed a trick, there). We shall see, I suppose.

The thing I enjoyed most about the book, I think, was the narrative voice. Percy's character comes through very strongly, and this makes the book fast-paced and easy to read.

The good thing about this book is that you could (feasibly) read it as a standalone and not need to read any more of the series, but also you are left with the knowledge that something a lot bigger (and darker) is going on. Just what you need for a series, I think.

All in all, I really enjoyed this book (despite some niggling problems) and I'm looking forward to reading the rest!

Probably more of a 3.5, but I'm more inclined to round down than up for this one.

Katsa is a Graceling, so identified by her mismatched eyes and special skills. Ever since the age of eight, when she killed a cousin who was threatening her, people have known that Katsa's Grace is killing. Her uncle, King Randa of the Middluns, has used her all these years as a kind of savage dog, to strike fear into the hearts of any that oppose or displease him. Then Katsa meets Po, a fellow Graceling, and is swept up into a conspiracy that will uncover truths darker than anyone could have realised.

Okay, so, I've heard a lot of bad things about this book and that put me off reading it for quite a long time. And there are some major problems with it, so I'll go through them first.

A lot of the criticism I've heard about this book is about the extreme feminism. Okay, so Katsa doesn't want to get married and hates wearing pretty dresses. And, all right, she repeats that she is never going to get married a number of times. But, honestly, I didn't really feel that any of this crossed into 'extreme' territory. Katsa wasn't a man-hating lunatic, and there was no man-hating going on throughout the novel. In fact, some of the most likeable characters were men. So I don't really get the whole 'extreme feminism' criticism, but, you know, in a way, Katsa was a bit of a 'strong female' stereotype. Would it kill an author to have a strong female who has pride in her appearance, or has no problems with the idea of marriage?

I didn't like how Katsa treated her horses, as if they were just objects to get from place to place on. This is a problem with Katsa, though, not the author. There are quite a few occasions where Katsa is called out on how she treats horses, especially by Po, but she just doesn't listen. To be fair, she doesn't really understand the whole concept of exhaustion, because she doesn't tire. She gets better at understanding what other people may be thinking or feeling as the book goes on, but still doesn't really grasp that the poor horses need rest.

Her Grace may make her a bit of a Mary Sue, considering the fact she doesn't tire, she doesn't hunger, she barely feels pain, she heals quickly, etc etc, but actually it also completely flaws her whole outlook on the world. She doesn't understand that other people have basic needs she doesn't, until it is physically pointed out to her. She comes across sometimes as a horrible bitch, forever pushing people harder, to go faster, or she will leave them behind, but it just doesn't occur to her (it seems) that they cannot physically keep up with her. That they need to eat and sleep. (So, actually, I'm not complaining about her Grace at all. It makes her physically quite unbeatable, but the trade off is this total lack of awareness of other people, which I think Cashore handles well.)

And Katsa does grow in her awareness of her Grace, of herself, and of other people (though... not horses), hence I've shelved this as a bildungsroman.

The thing I don't understand about Graces is that they seem to be entirely inconsistent. There are some people who are Graced with cooking, or swimming, and these are talents that non-Graced people can work on. So at first I thought that a Grace was just kind of like an innate/natural talent. Then, there's a girl in some guy's house who has the Grace of mindreading. That is not a talent. That is a power. So which is it, Cashore? If you have a magic system, there needs to be a set of rules that is stuck to. You can't really compare swimming and mindreading. You don't get superheroes going, "Yeah, my superpower is cooking." This really did bother me. Graces should be talents (which ordinary people can cultivate, if not to such an extent) or powers (which ordinary people can't dream of). Not some of each.

It doesn't make sense for people to be frightened of a Graceling who is amazing at swimming, for goodness sake.

The climax was also another irritation for me. It was too easy. It was over too quickly. It was as though the main villain was a helium balloon, and in the end all he did was deflate. When we were introduced to him, and we learned of his Grace, he was actually pretty damn terrifying. I was imagining all these scenarios and then... pfft. Damp firework.

For all its faults, there was a lot of things about this book that I did like.

Firstly, it was highly readable. By which I mean the sentences flowed easily and I didn't have to puzzle over words and syntax and wasn't bored by long passages of exposition. So, you know, it had that going for it.

Secondly, I really liked the romance. It was two people who never meant to fall in love with each other, but did, and you can see how much Katsa struggles with it, because it goes against everything that she has ever wanted for herself. Also, the sex scenes were handled marvellously - at least, I thought so. They are not too explicit, yet do not shy away or fade to black. They deal with the pain of losing virginity, and the emotions that come along with it.

I also liked Po's character, even though he has two stupid names (Po, and Greening). For similar reasons, I also loved Po's brother, Skye. The Lienid just kind of have an easygoing attitude that endears me to them.

I really liked the concept of the Graces, but I just wish they had been handled a little differently. I do love the idea of the Graces presenting as heterochromia, though.

Overall, this book was a good read and, although the main character was really rather unlikeable a lot of the time, you shouldn't let that put you off trying it.

I think this is one of the best writing guides I have read so far.

It is divided into three sections: planning, writing, and revising. Hewson leads us through each of these sections, building with us an imaginary novel called Charlie and the Mermaid. This is, in fact, one of the most useful parts of the book. You get to see this novel taking shape, from the first spark of an idea to a completed manuscript ready to send off to an agent or publisher. I actually wish Charlie and the Mermaid was a real novel, as it sounds fascinating.

Not only does Hewson guide you through the creation of a brand new novel, he also gives examples from some of his previously published work. This is not only limited to things he believes he has done well, but things that (particularly in his ealier novels) he believes that he could have done better. I enjoyed this because it kind of shows how reflective you have to be as a writer, especially when it comes to things you could improve on.

Hewson also spends time going over some writing and note-taking software, as well as the art and practice of keeping a book journal. This may seem like obvious stuff - I mean, most people know how to use a generic word processor - but it was actually one of the most useful and relatable sections of the book. Apparently he has book out on writing a novel in Scrivener, which is a programme I use regularly, and, on the strength of what I've read in this book, I'm seriously debating picking it up. Take from that what you will.

The voice Hewson uses in this book - and he admits that it is a calculated, conscious voice - is relatable and easy to read. I felt a bit like he was talking to me. That's something you want from a guide, I think. Of course, the fact that he admits that he consciously chose the book's voice to be that way is useful in and of itself - it makes you reflect on the choice of voice in your own work just a little bit more.

Something about David Hewson's advice just clicked for me, and I came away from it raring to create the novel that has been brewing inside my head for years. I'm not saying that his advice will work for everyone (he says that you should question everything, and to see whether or not it works for you), but Hewson has a lot of interesting things to say. Writing is a very personal thing, and this is his way of doing it.

This is not really a 'how to' book. This is a writer explaining his methods and giving some advice along the way. And that's why, I think, it is one of my favourite books on writing I've read.

This is basically what it says in the title - a guy's guide to Fifty Shades of Grey.

Having finished Fifty Shades of Grey sometime last year, and neither hating it nor loving it, I've decided the time has come to read the other books in the trilogy. I'm not sure whether I'm curious about the plot or whether or not the writing gets better. Anyway, I thought it would be a good idea to read a little summary of the first book, and my girlfriend had picked up this on her Kindle, so I thought I'd read it.

Firstly, this is very short. It took me all of fifteen minutes to get through the whole thing. I'm not sure if it's value for money, but I guess that depends on how funny you find it.

For me, I found some of it amusing, and some of it not so amusing.

I enjoyed the author's voice a lot. It seemed to me as he was flicking through James's novel with some sort of baffled disbelief at what he was reading. Though he did miss out the tampon scene. Perhaps his poor brain just could not compute that. I just had this image throughout the whole thing of this guy reading Fifty Shades and just looking more and more perplexed by the page.

I also enjoyed the chapter titles. I think they are very apt!

I admit, I didn't find all of it funny, but perhaps that's just because it's been so long since I actually read the book it was talking about. None of the content was unfunny exactly, it just wasn't as hilarious as some other reviewers have made it out to be.

Actually, the funniest bits for me were Paolangeli's comments on Ana's inner goddess. I also enjoyed the premise of kind of a 'how to' book for men trying to get laid, though I'm hoping no guy actually takes this seriously. If you try to act like Christian Grey, you're probably heading for a prison sentence. *coughstalkercough*

Overall, this was a good little plot summary of Fifty Shades of Grey, with some funny moments and a great authorial voice. If you want to see what all the fuss is (was?) about, but don't actually want to read the book, give this a try.