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Amanda's Bookshelf
I'm a culture junkie who works at a bookstore. Pop, high-brow, junk -- it's all good. I try and consume it all.
I read tons, especially young adult fiction. I also love quirky, offbeat novels; cultural analysis; mythology; girly fiction; fantasy; screwball romantic comedies; books with extremely flawed characters, yet somehow you really empathize with them; nonlinear narratives and language play.
Currently reading
The Runaway King
The Lost Girl
Another Little Piece
Moranthology
There Is No Dog
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Fated
Room
Topics About Which I Know Nothing
The Little Friend
Glow (Sky Chasers)
With so many similar books coming out in the post-Hunger-Games phenonemon, I've been leaning towards skepticism of most new releases in the teen-dystopia genre being compared to the series. Especially--when considering--as more series come out, the quality seems to be descending as the market is flooded with books riding the current young-adult trend.Having said that, while going into this with all of this in mind, I ended up enjoying it. It was interesting and the writing was rather good, with characters that initially felt stereotypical becoming more layered as the story began to unfold (as well as how each character's point-of-view affects how another one's behavior is interpreted). Although in the same genre, it has less in common with Hunger Games and felt more like Across the Universe and the Inside Out. Still, it's a great start and I'm curious.On a different note, the fertility/sexuality of teens and how it is manipulated by adults is a popping up in quite a few dystopia novels. While this one had more than its fair share of disturbing moments, I do think it was handled well (so far, at least) in comparison to some of the other books I've read like this. Also, I have yet to fully form cohesive thoughts on why this pattern seems to be more and more prevalent, but it clearly is. Anyway, enjoyable. More of a 3.75/5.
