Category: Reviews

Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson Book Review

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Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson

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You Can Find the Book At:

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Author Website

GoodReads Summary:

There are no heroes.

Ten years ago, abortion Calamity came. It was a burst in the sky that gave ordinary men and women extraordinary powers. The awed public started calling them Epics.

But Epics are no friend of man. With incredible gifts came the desire to rule. And to rule man you must crush his wills. 

Nobody fights the Epics… nobody but the Reckoners. A shadowy group of ordinary humans, help they spend their lives studying Epics, about it finding their weaknesses, and then assassinating them.

And David wants in. He wants Steelheart—the Epic who is said to be invincible. The Epic who killed David’s father. For years, like the Reckoners, David’s been studying, and planning—and he has something they need. Not an object, but an experience. 

He’s seen Steelheart bleed. And he wants revenge..

My Review:

I do have to say one thing that really bothered me about the novel, and its this: what on earth is Calamity? I mean, we briefly get told that it appears in the sky, and then the Epics come but other than that, it just really confused me. Especially when David would look up into the sky and see Calamity and I’m just like, okay, but what IS it? Is it a space ship? Is it a big ball of…something? Maybe this is a question that is going to be answered in the second book (which is titled Firefight, and is due sometime in fall of 2014), but it was something that drove me nuts. Like I said, maybe this was done on purpose, to increase the mysterious of Calamity and the Epics and where they came from, and how they got the way they did, etc, and in that case, I applaud it immensely because that left me feeling incredibly confused.

That being said, I thought this was an interesting take on the idea of superheroes. When I read Brandon’s acknowledgements in the back of the book, and how it was a story idea that he had for awhile, but he never wrote, and he put aside other ideas to focus on this, I thought that was kind of interesting. The premise of this story grabs at you, and I can imagine as the writer to come up with it, it had to be extremely compelling and probably a little irritating to have that story in your head, begging to be written.

The thing is, the idea of people with powers that abuse their powers isn’t anything that new. But the idea that they go around giving themselves names, and identities, like Steelheart or Firefight is just sickening when you realize all the terrible things they do. Its like watching Batman and Superman and Spiderman using their powers to take us over. Its just freaky. I don’t know why but the idea that they name themselves like superheroes just freaks me out. It makes them seem even more demented and cruel.

Because they are so CRUEL. They don’t even really work together as villains either. They’re completely driven by power and greed, and they take each other out in the quest for more power. They use each other, and abuse each other. And Steelheart is almost the worst of them all. He is in power over a city that really has it so much better than others. They’re fed, educated, they have electricity. They aren’t exactly happy but they’re so much better off than others. Its like, just because a tyrant takes care of you, doesn’t mean that tyrant is right, and David and the people he meets through the course of this novel, really see that, and even though its so unlikely and its so little against so many, they’re determined to take Steelheart down.

And the story is addicting the entire time. The people in this novel are action people. They’re intelligent and ready and determined and so while they plan, they also are people of action, and the action keeps you gripping your book the entire time because you honestly have no idea how anything is going to turn out. These are smart and well prepared people but you never know when things are going to go wrong. Honestly, this book would make an absolutely incredible movie. Between the drama, the tension, the planning and the action, it would make a seriously amazing movie.

Oh, the cliffhanger? Thanks Brandon Sanderson. Thanks for having a nice big reveal and then just leaving us hanging here! I can’t be the only one who is now anxiously waiting for Fall 2014, and all the amazing that is going to come with that.

Rating:

4 out of 5 stars

Book of the Week – The House of Hades

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I was so excited to read this book, and have been waiting so long for it to come out that I decided, what a wonderful idea to start reading it as soon as it downloaded to my Kindle and stay up ALL night reading it. At 3 am, I finally finished reading it, my eyes were bloodshot, and I was exhausted, both physically and emotionally.

But I will tell you this: it was definitely worth, it.

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The Extra by Kathryn Lasky Book Review

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The Extra by Kathryn Lasky

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Thank you Candlewick Press for sending an advanced copy of this book to be read and honestly reviewed by What A Nerd Girl Says. This in no way shaped my opinion in this review! 

 

You Can Find the Book At:

GoodReads

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Author Website

GoodReads Summary:

Is the chance to serve as an extra for Hitler’s favorite filmmaker a chance at life — or a detour on the path to inevitable extermination?

One ordinary afternoon, sales fifeen-year-old Lilo and her family are suddenly picked up by Hitler’s police and imprisoned as part of the “Gypsy plague.” Just when it seems certain that they will be headed to a labor camp, Lilo is chosen by filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl to work as a film extra. Life on the film set is a bizarre alternate reality. The surroundings are glamorous, but Lilo and the other extras are barely fed, closely guarded, and kept in a locked barn when not on the movie set. And the beautiful, charming Riefenstahl is always present, answering the slightest provocation with malice, flaunting the power to assign prisoners to life or death. Lilo takes matters into her own hands, effecting an escape and running for her life. In this chilling but ultimately uplifting novel, Kathryn Lasky imagines the lives of the Gypsies who worked as extras for the real Nazi filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, giving readers a story of survival unlike any other

My Review:

Look, there are a ton of books out there, and there will continue to be books out there about the travesties of World War 2, because this is an insanely important part of history, of our history. If anyone ever questions the need to write another book about it, then that’s the answer. But this book really caught my eye because it went beyond, capturing a piece of the WWII history that I was not as familiar with.

When you read a WWII book, you always read about the persecution of the Jews, because, of course, they got the brunt of it, definitely. But I feel like people often times forget that Gypsies, homosexuals, people with physical or mental disabilities were also heavily persecuted. This is where Kathryn Lasky picks up.

I was on my journey for advanced copies of novels when I came across this book. I thought the title was interesting and so was the cover. But what really caught my eye was the tagline, “A girl’s fate is in the hand’s of Hitler’s favorite filmmaker.” After researching the book a little, and finding that the story was based in historical fact, I immediately shot an email off to Candlewick. I was really excited when I got it in the mail yesterday, and after realizing that it releases in a few days, I realized I had to read it fast, to review for you guys.

I think that Kathryn really dives into a part of history that we don’t get to see very often. The main character, Lilo, is Gypsy, and the book immediately starts off with she and her parents being taken away, and the journey goes from there. It is at one camp where famous actress, and now director, Leni Riefanstahl, comes to find Gypsy extras for her movie, based on a Spanish folk opera. Lilo is chosen, along with her mother, and her friend, Django. At first the deal doesn’t seem too bad, because while they’re still corralled around like cattle, they’re fed better, clothed a bit better, and they’re working on a movie. But it doesn’t really take long for Lilo to figure out that there’s so much more to Leni that previously thought and that’s where the drama comes from.

They think for a moment that they could be safer, but in reality, they’re tiptoeing around even more. Leni is a volatile, furious person who can be extremely cruel. When one of the extras, Lilo’s friend Unku, is realized to be so extremely pretty, Leni orders for her hair to be chopped, and personally shaves a bald spot on the back of her head. And I think that’s something that Kathryn really tackles in this book. She shows that there are dangers in every part of this life, and during this war. Lilo is in as much danger with Leni as she would be with a hardened Nazi soldier.

I do think that Lilo could have used a bit more personality; a lot of the story is told through her mind and she seems so…accepting of so much. She obviously gets upset but you don’t see a lot of real rage or fear or any of that. The book has a great story, a compelling one that we don’t get to see much when talking about World War II literature, especially in YA, but its surprisingly lacking of emotion. I only wish I could have seen more of Lilo’s emotions during this time.

But like I said, the story is an absolutely compelling one. Its a story that I had never heard before, and it showed a different side of history during that time. You know that the Gypsies were part of Hitler’s reign of terror, but you don’t focus on them as much, because of that main focus on the perscution of the Jews. Seeing a part of the Gypsy history, and how they were treated, and used, its horrifying, but its addicting at every turn. To know that something like this happened, where a group of people who were hated, but still used. Its just an interesting story.

Rating:

5 out of 5 stars

Book of the Week – Dreamless

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Normally, I try REALLY hard not to do sequels as the Book of the Week, because if you haven’t read the first book, you really don’t know what’s going on, and can’t really read the Book of the Week post.

Or I’ll do sequels if I know that enough people have read the previous ones, like with Divergent or the Heroes of Olympus, which are two sequel books (Allegiant and House of Hades) that I definitely will be using as Book of the Weeks soon.

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Apollyon by Jennifer L. Armentrout Book Review

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Apollyon by Jennifer L. Armentrout

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You Can Find the Book At:

GoodReads

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Author Website

GoodReads Summary:

Fate isn’t something to mess with… and now, more about neither is Alex.

Alex has always feared two things: losing herself in the Awakening and being placed on the Elixir. But love has always been stronger than Fate, cure and Aiden St. Delphi is willing to make war on the gods—and Alex herself—to bring her back.

The gods have killed thousands and could destroy entire cities in their quest to stop Seth from taking Alex’s power and becoming the all-powerful God Killer. But breaking Alex’s connection to Seth isn’t the only problem. There are a few pesky little loopholes in the whole “an Apollyon can’t be killed” theory, and the only person who might know how to stop the destruction has been dead for centuries.

Finding their way past the barriers that guard the Underworld, searching for one soul among countless millions, and then somehow returning will be hard enough. Alex might be able to keep Seth from becoming the God Killer… or she might become the God Killer herself.

My Review:

Please keep in mind: this review will not spoil this particular book, but it most likely will have spoilers for previous books. 

Literally everything is starting to come together in this book. Alex has finally become the Apollyon, and her deepest fear has come true: she loses herself and she wants nothing more than to be reunited with Seth, because she wants what he wants, and she is devoted to him. I had been hoping so HARD that it wouldn’t happen and when it happened, I almost died. I wanted to throw the book across the room, especially when I read the short novella between Deity and Apollyon: Elixir and we see inside Aidan’s head, as he struggles with Alex.

But I think that’s a huge reason why this book got to me so much. We see Aidan’s point of view briefly in Elixir, and we know how he feels about her and both his fears, and his worries for Alex. Coming back into the book with Alex as the wacked out Apollyon was something that was frightening, especially knowing what to expect, and wondering how on earth they were going to manage to get the real Alex back. I think the entire book, we see the devotion and love and friendship that Alex is able to get from Aidan and Marcus and Olivia, and Caleb, and even the god, Apollo. I think there is a lot to be shown in that, and in their faith that she can break the bond with Seth.

Which leads to me Seth. I had such mixed feelings about Seth since the beginning. I’m a big shipper of Aidan and Alex (what’s their ship name? does anyone know?) but Seth was kind of sexy in a dark way. I’m not going to lie, my cheeks got all flushed when Seth and Alex had those steamy scenes. But then Seth just…he went so bad in Deity with his attack on the Covenant, and his allegiance with Lucian, and I wanted to kill him. I especially wanted to kill him when you hear him in Alex’s mind, while she’s not herself, connected at him through the bond. He’s so slippery and sneaky. But Alex and Caleb are so determined that there is some kind of hope for him, and so its interesting to see where it goes, especially when its obviously that Alex cares for him, and that Seth does for her, bond or not.

But I also love that we’re building up more and more for what is going to take place in Sentinel, which releases in exactly one month. There are so many aspects to be concerned with. You have Ares, who is the God who is determined to use Seth for his own means, you have the bond between Seth and Alex, and Alex’s task to strip him of his power, or kill him. There’s the issue of the completely torn apart Covenant world, and the laws that need to be changed in regards to half bloods and their relations with pure bloods. There is so much at stake, and it makes for a great cliffhanger, a great desire to read the next book and a completely impatient Sara.

Rating:

5 out of 5 stars