Renegades by Marissa Meyer: Series Review

4 Stars. I loved Marissa Meyer’s Lunar Chronicles so I eventually decided to read her take on a superhero story. I like superhero movies but that’s about as far as I go (no comics or other books), so this was a bit of a step outside my comfort zone. I really liked it. Sometimes superhero stories feel entirely too “good vs […]

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World War Z by Max Brooks: Book Review

3 Stars. You can imagine my surprise when I listened to World War Z and discovered that I was… a little bored. There. I said it. The format is very similar to that used in Devolution, with a fictional interviewer speaking with survivors of a catastrophic event. I think the difference for me was that Devolution also included a […]

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The Giver by Lois Lowry: Book Review

4 Stars. This was published in 1993, when I was 15 years old, and I must have just barely missed having it as assigned reading in school. While it’s probably a classic to many of you, this was the first time I’ve read it. I was surprised by how unsettling it is. Jonas’s world seems almost perfect at first. Everyone apologizes […]

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Wires & Nerve by Marissa Meyer: Book Review

4 Stars. It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of The Lunar Chronicles (especially on audio), so when I stumbled on these books at the library, I had to bring them home. Iko has always been sort of the comic relief of the series for me. Even if she isn’t truly being funny, she still generally provides lighter moments when the story […]

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Stars Above by Marissa Meyer: Book Review

4 Stars. I needed these Lunar short stories to get some closure after the emotional turmoil of Winter. (I was so angry at Levana that I almost gave up on the book. It was that torturous). When I realized that this book was happening, I jumped on it as soon as I possibly could at the library. Most of the stories are prequels to Cinder […]

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Winter by Marissa Meyer: Book Review

3 Stars. I’m exhausted. Emotionally and physically exhausted. Because of my library’s policies, I had two weeks to listen to a 21-part audio book, when it normally takes me that long to listen to about 10 parts. Because I love this series, I buckled down and did it. This can’t have been good for my blood pressure. I only thought […]

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Fairest by Marissa Meyer: Book Review

3.5 Stars. I’m finding this hard to rate. On the one hand, it is well-written and exciting and everything that I expect from this series. On the other hand, it’s Levana. Oh my gosh! I despise this character! I tried hard to find something to like and to see her as more of a victim than a victimizer and that worked for maybe the […]

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Cress by Marissa Meyer: Book Review

4 Stars. Holy smokes. When does the next one come out? November? *sigh* For some reason, I thought this series was a trilogy, so I expected everything to be wrapped up neatly. I just got more and more stressed out as everything fell apart. Let’s face it–Cinder and company are very much the underdogs. But things just got worse […]

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Scarlet by Marissa Meyer: Book Review

4 Stars. I didn’t like this quite as much as Cinder but I definitely still enjoyed it. By introducing Scarlet, Marissa Meyer managed to avoid my common complaint that the second book in a series is just filler. Had she stayed exclusively with Cinder’s story, I’d probably be complaining. By shifting the focus, she fills in a lot […]

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Santa Olivia by Jacqueline Carey: Book Review

4 Stars. This was not what I expected, but I’m not complaining. I expected more of a science-fictiony werewolf story and that’s not really what this is. The nonhuman? superhuman? other-than-human? side of Loup definitely defines a large part of her life, but it’s not really what drives […]

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