The Saturday Review - 6 July 2019

The Saturday Review is back! I know, I need to keep up better with this but my reviews keep piling up instead. What have you been reading lately bookdragons?

Escape from Asylum

by Madeleine Roux

Publisher: HaperCollins

Release Date: June 14, 2016

Genre: Young adult, Horror

Blurb

In this terrifying prequel novel to the New York Times bestselling Asylum series, a teen is wrongfully committed to the Brookline psychiatric hospital and must find a way out—before he becomes the next victim of the evil warden’s experiments. With the page-turning suspense and unsettling found photographs from real asylums that led Publishers Weekly to call Asylum “a strong YA debut,” Escape from Asylum is perfect for fans of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.

The nightmare is just beginning.

Ricky Desmond has been through this all before. If he could just get through to his mother, he could convince her that he doesn’t belong at Brookline. From the man who thinks he can fly to the woman who killed her husband, the other patients are nothing like him; all he did was lose his temper just a little bit, just the once. But when Ricky is selected by the sinister Warden Crawford for a very special program—a program that the warden claims will not cure him but perfect him—Ricky realizes that he may not be able to wait for his mom a second longer. With the help of a sympathetic nurse and a fellow patient, Ricky needs to escape now.

Set long before Dan, Abby, and Jordan ever walked the hallways of the Brookline asylum—back when it was still a functioning psych ward and not a dorm—Escape from Asylum is a mind-bending and scary installment in the Asylum series that can stand on its own for new readers or provide missing puzzle pieces for series fans.

Cover: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 The one thing I've consistently liked about this series is the covers. They're eerie and dark and eye-catching.

Summary/Tagline: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 “The Nightmare Is Just Beginning." - Yes please, this boasts the set up of a great scare. Unfortunately it didn't deliver for me.

Characters: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 The main thing I did like is the diverse characters in this book. Ricky is bisexual and Kay is transgender. I was not expecting that going into this book and I thought the author did both reps justice. Of course we see The Warden in living breathing color instead of memories and hauntings in this one and he's every bit the psychopath he is described as in the other books. 

Worldbuilding: 🌟🌟🌟 I'm not sure what to give this for worldbuilding. In Escape from Asylum Brookline is still a working mental institution but as for originality it's not far off from I don't know... Shutter Island with less of an isolated setting. This particular book is set in the 60s but did I really feel like it was the 60s? Eh, not really. Other than the medical practices that were banned years and years ago.

Story: 🌟 Forget the year and this book is basically Asylum with a different title and different characters with the same lack of personality. I feel like I read this book before and I basically did when I read the original Asylum. Prequels are usually supposed to add something to a series or uncover a hidden truth or connection that the reader won't see coming but I feel this book failed to do that. 

Overall: 🌟🌟 2 of 5 Stars!

My Rating:

🌟🌟 

2 of 5 Stars!

Teen Titans: Raven

by Kami Garcia

Published by: DC Ink

On: July 2, 2019

Genre: Graphic Novel

Blurb:

When a tragic accident takes the life of 17-year-old Raven Roth's foster mom--and Raven's memory--she moves to New Orleans to recover and finish her senior year of high school.
Starting over isn't easy. Raven remembers everyday stuff like how to solve math equations and make pasta, but she can't remember her favorite song or who she was before the accident. And when impossible things start happening, Raven begins to think it might even be better not to know who she was before.

But as she grows closer to her new friends, her foster sister, Max, and Tommy Torres, a guy who accepts her for who she is now, Raven has to decide if she's ready to face what's buried in the past...and the darkness building inside her.

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Kami Garcia and first-time graphic novel artist Gabriel Picolo comes this riveting tale of finding the strength to face who you are and learning to trust others--and yourself.

Review:

Cover: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 I love the cover of this graphic novel and the illustrations inside are really cool.

Summary/Tagline: N/A

Characters: 🌟🌟🌟 I'm not familiar with who Raven is in the DC world because I'm not usually into comic book stuff but I liked her as a character struggling to remember who she is after losing her memory. I also liked the side characters.
Worldbuilding: 🌟🌟🌟 Again, maybe if I was familiar with who this character is I could tell you how closely it works with her backstory, but I don't. I do love anything set in New Orleans though and I thought it was well portrayed.

Story: 🌟🌟 I have trouble rating this because the eARC I got from the publisher through Edleweiss was pretty screwed up. One page was chapter one then the next was chapter 18 and it kept jumping like that making it nearly impossible to read. I felt like I was going crazy trying to figure it out. The only reason I can give it 2 stars is because perhaps, if it had been set in the right order, I might have enjoyed it. 

Overall: 🌟🌟🌟 3 of 5 Stars!

My Rating:

🌟🌟🌟

3 of 5 Stars!

Aurora Rising 

by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Published by: Knopf Books For Young Readers

On: May 7, 2019

Genre: YA, Sci-Fi

Blurb:

From the internationally bestselling authors of THE ILLUMINAE FILES comes an epic new science fiction adventure.

The year is 2380, and the graduating cadets of Aurora Academy are being assigned their first missions. Star pupil Tyler Jones is ready to recruit the squad of his dreams, but his own boneheaded heroism sees him stuck with the dregs nobody else in the Academy would touch…

A cocky diplomat with a black belt in sarcasm
A sociopath scientist with a fondness for shooting her bunkmates
A smart-ass techwiz with the galaxy’s biggest chip on his shoulder
An alien warrior with anger management issues
A tomboy pilot who’s totally not into him, in case you were wondering

And Ty’s squad isn’t even his biggest problem—that’d be Aurora Jie-Lin O’Malley, the girl he’s just rescued from interdimensional space. Trapped in cryo-sleep for two centuries, Auri is a girl out of time and out of her depth. But she could be the catalyst that starts a war millions of years in the making, and Tyler’s squad of losers, discipline-cases and misfits might just be the last hope for the entire galaxy.

They're not the heroes we deserve. They're just the ones we could find. Nobody panic.

Review:

Cover: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Oooh Yes! Come to me my prettiness! I like this cover more than the Illuminae Files for sure! I only regret not getting the pink one from Illumicrate!

Summary/Tagline: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 “They're not the heroes we deserve. They're just the ones we could find."  - I like it! It tells me that there's going to be some humor in this book. 

Characters: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 I can truly say I loved Squad 312.. with one exception. I couldn't force myself to like Cat. I just couldn't do it. I felt like she let her feelings for Ty cloud her judgment where everything else was concerned. Otherwise I adored the rest of the character; especially Aurora and Kal! And Scarlett and Zila and Ty and Fin. 
Worldbuilding: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 Aurora Rising is set way before the Illuminae Files so we're dealing with a fresh new world and new species of characters. This world is so vibrant and different and I felt like I could see it so well in my mind.

Story: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 I could not put this book down. I started listening to it as an audiobook which I usually listen to before bed but then I started reading from the physical book during the day and before I knew it I was at the end dying for the next book. 

Overall: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 4.4 of 5 Stars!

My Rating:

🌟🌟🌟🌟

4.4 of 5 Stars!

Warcross

by Marie Lu

Published by: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books For Young Readers

On: September 12, 2017

Genre: YA, Sci-Fi

Blurb:

For the millions who log in every day, Warcross isn’t just a game—it’s a way of life.

The obsession started ten years ago and its fan base now spans the globe, some eager to escape from reality and others hoping to make a profit. Struggling to make ends meet, teenage hacker Emika Chen works as a bounty hunter, tracking down Warcross players who bet on the game illegally. But the bounty hunting world is a competitive one, and survival has not been easy. To make some quick cash, Emika takes a risk and hacks into the opening game of the international Warcross Championships—only to accidentally glitch herself into the action and become an overnight sensation.

Convinced she’s going to be arrested, Emika is shocked when instead she gets a call from the game’s creator, the elusive young billionaire Hideo Tanaka, with an irresistible offer. He needs a spy on the inside of this year’s tournament in order to uncover a security problem . . . and he wants Emika for the job. With no time to lose, Emika’s whisked off to Tokyo and thrust into a world of fame and fortune that she’s only dreamed of. But soon her investigation uncovers a sinister plot, with major consequences for the entire Warcross empire.

Review:

Cover: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 For a cover this simplistic it is so colorful and eye-grabbing. I love the three dimensional quality to the title.

Summary/Tagline: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 “Player. Hunter. Hacker. Pawn."  - Yes, Emika Chen ends up being all of these things and I loved watching her arc through all the different jobs and lies she had to tell during this book. Yes she was a player in the Warcross championships, but she's also a spy. 

Characters: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 Emika is a really cool main character and I love how she got into coding and hacking then got into trouble for trying to right a wrong done to a classmate and how that has shaped who she now is in her late teens. Then there's Hideo Tanaka and his mercurial moods. Is he a shy tech geek? A guy with a tragic past who turned it into a successful career? A villain? A visionary? A madman?
Worldbuilding: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 At times I felt like I had stepped into one of my favorite video games as I read about Emika being inside the game. I also liked how the dark-web version of  Warcross was described. The worldbuilding as a whole was very unique and I loved it. 
Story: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 I can't believe it took me this long to read this book! I had started it once before and not given it a chance for some reason but this time I found myself quickly hooked on the story and invested in the characters. I can't wait to read the second book and see how it ends!

Overall: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 4.4 of 5 Stars!

My Rating:

🌟🌟🌟🌟

4.4 of 5 Stars!