Wither - Impressions

Hello again readers! Here I am with another book in my read pile. Enjoyed my 'weekend' by plowing through books, and relaxing. I have possibly avoided all the cleaning I said I was going to do, (okay I definitely did) whoops.

Book: Wither by Lauren DeStefano
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers; 1 edition (March 22, 2011)
The book was purchased by me for review purposes, I still don't blog enough to get ARCs or early releases.

From the Publisher - Dust Jacket blurb:
What if you knew exactly when you would die?

Thanks to modern science, every newborn has become a ticking genetic time bomb - males only live to age twenty-five, and females only live to age twenty. In this bleak landscape, young girls are kidnapped and forced into polygamous marriages to keep the population from dying out.

When sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery is taken by the Gatherers to become a bride, she enters a world of wealth and privilege. Despite her husband Linden's genuine love for her, and a tenuous trust among her sister wives, Rhine has one purpose: to escape - to find her twin brother and go home.

But Rhine has more to contend with than losing her freedom. Linden's eccentric father is bent on finding an antidote to the genetic virus that is getting closer to taking his son, even if it means collecting corpses in order to test his experiments. With the help of Gabriel, a servant she is growing dangerously attracted to, Rhine attempts to break free, in the limited time she has left.


Dust Jacket Impressions: Wow, whoever designed the cover should get a raise, I loved it. The fun little lines and circles, the little bird in the cage, and the test tube on the back with the hourglass, awesome.

Ticking genetic time bomb, when we die do we actually explode? I was getting hilarious visuals of people's heads exploding the exact minute they hit their 20/25th birthday. I'm quite positive that this does not happen, but admit it, it makes you giggle (or I may possibly need mental help). The large fact of the matter is, in this future world, I AM DEAD. Thanks ever so much Lauren, oh wait, so are you, how did you write this? I kid, obviously. So polygamous marriages? I get the impression women are bred like animals, it is also not a good visual. Also, ew, STDs much? If they kidnap women off the street I hope they clean them up first. I'm assuming this does not occur in the book it bares thought though.

Rhine is our main character, I love that she is named after a river. I see her twin brother is mentioned but barely, so I am assuming he plays little to no role in the actual book. If he does I assume it is in the beginning or via flashbacks. Her husband Linden sounds like he'll be decent, and it seems like her father-in-law will be our bad guy in this book. I suppose collecting corpses is better than eating corpses I guess. Being experimented on, and apparently lusting after a servant boy has got to be better than sleeping in the street and being eaten by zombies. No, as far as I know there are no zombies in this book.

Okay, I'm sold. Rhine apparently wants nothing more than to escape a creepy marriage she was kidnapped for. I want nothing more than to read an interesting story where the main character has to decide between a gilded cage, and the unknown of the outside world. She wants to get back to her brother and probably take Gabriel with her. Cool, romance, creepy in-law, death everywhere, dystopian world, yep I can't wait to read it.

Buy the book to read it with me!:

Shatter Me - Impressions

Well Readers! I'm back, and have a giant pile of books to go through and review. Today I'm bringing my initial impressions of a book that has been getting TONS of press, including optioned movie rights months before it was even available in stores! Today is the release date, so it felt good to start my review of it!


Book: Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
Publisher: HarperCollins (November 15, 2011)
The book was purchased by me for review purposes, I still don't blog enough to get ARCs or early releases.

From the Publisher:
"You can't touch me," I whisper.

I'm lying, is what I don't tell him.

He can touch me, is what I'll never tell him.

But things happen when people touch me.

Strange things.

Bad things.

No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal, but The Reestablishment has plans for her. Plans to use her as a weapon.

But Juliette has plans of her own.

After a lifetime without freedom, she's finally discovering a strength to fight back for the very first time—and to find a future with the one boy she thought she'd lost forever.


Dust Jacket Impressions:Well, I first heard about this book a few months ago, and since then it has steadily been getting more and more press. When I read the publisher's blurb I was intrigued, it sounds like X-men meets dystopian literature, therefore putting it to the top of my To-Read list when it released.

I don't know what is going on with the cover, I personally think it looks ridiculous, it looks more like a teen socialite book than a book about a girl with mysterious powers. I personally feel I'm going to be reading a book about prom, over a book with a dystopian feel. Quite frankly, had I just seen the book on a shelf and not heard about it, I never would have picked it out as something that interested me. Yes, I did judge this book by it's cover, thankfully I learned it was not a book about prom, or homecoming, or a coming out party for a New York socialite, but a book about a young girl who's touch can kill (far more interesting).

So, it look's like our main character is Juliette, if she happens to poison herself in the book, or stab herself over a boy, I will be sorely disappointed. I also hope that her love interest is not named Romeo. If she decides to change her name during the course of the book I also hope it does not change to Rogue. Yes, I made passes at both William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliette, and X-Men, those are the huge vibes I got from reading the book (Also, I somehow managed to spell Shakespeare wrong when I first typed this, blogger fail).

I'm hoping Juliette turns out to be a strong woman and not a dead fish, and that the book focuses more on her adventure in possibly saving the world and taking down whatever evil government is around, than her romance. I hope I am right readers, I don't want to run into zomgtrueloveforever in the book. Life doesn't happen that way, and although it is a marvelous thing to imagine in a perfect world we will all find our prince fall in love at first site then live our our lives, it just doesn't. Something that bothers me in a lot of YA is the zomgtrueloveforever trap. I suppose I could take it though, if Juliette is a strong character, and doesn't fall all over herself and 'woe is me' attitude, and she uses whatever cool power she has, and kicks butt... We shall see! I have high hopes for a book labeled as fodder for those waiting for The Hunger Games movie, and a book receiving so much buzz. Also, I WANT to love it, Tahereh Mafi is such a wonderful person, and tries to talk to as many of her fans as possible through Twitter, I adore her for that.

Buy the book to read it with me!:

Fun Friday!

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Fun Fridays here at The Violet Corner! Now, apparently this never posted yesterday (probably because I fell asleep super early and was practically in a coma after work) and I never set this entry to auto-post, Whoops!
Anyway, today's fun Friday (Saturday lol) is about stupid customers. Now, I work retail, so I run into lots of wonderful people broken up by incredibly rude people, and really dumb people. If you have a story to share PLEASE DO SO NOW! E-mail thevioletcorner@gmail.com and I will post your stories today too!

My favorite story I have from working retail comes when I was working outside in the garden department at my store. A woman probably in her late 20's early 30's walks up to me and asks, "Excuse me, where can I find the bug killer."
Well, being the helpful cashier that I am, I pointed to the swinging doors and replied, "Our pesticides are just through the greenhouse there, and directly to the left."
Now, the customer nodded and walked towards the doors, so I went and rang out the person that had gone over to my register while I had bee giving directions. When I looked up after finishing the woman I had sent inside was still standing in front of the doors. Concerned I went over and asked "Miss, did you need any help still?" It had been somewhere between 2-5 minutea she had been there mind you.
Well, the woman turned to me and said "Well, I'm waiting for the magic to happen."
Incredibly confused I managed to ask "The magic?"
"You know, the MAGIC! For the doors to open, they muat be broken," she frowned.
"Miss, these arent automatic doors, you have to push them," I responded. Please keep in mind I am both trying not to burst into laughter, or call her an idiot to her face.
She looked sad, and said "oh," and then struggled with pushing the doors open. Seriously? They are really light plastic swinging doors.
I literally could not believe it just happened. I honestly wonder to myself just how dumb this woman was, and how she had managed to live so long without permanent supervision. Apparently being pretty is better than being smart?

Please! Share your stories, pictures, online videos, anything that you find funny for fun Fridays! Head to the contact tab above and email me!

Delirium - Final Review

 Hello Readers! Here I am with my final overall review for delirium by Lauren Oliver. I know I've been slow to post this, with my week hiatus and all, but here it is!

For the entire review experience: Read the first two posts for Delirium, Initial Impressions, and First 100 Pages Review

Book: Delirium by Lauren Oliver - 2011
My copy of delirium is the special edition, which contains a Q+A from the author, and an excerpt from the sequel.

Final Review: I would definitely say I enjoyed Delirium. Many of the things I would like to say in this review though, I can't, for fear of spoiling the book, therefore I have them jotted down in notes meant for when I do my initial impressions of the sequel. Delirium was a fun take on the saturation of romance and distopian literature in the YA market. In Delirium, love is the enemy, a disease meant to be cured. The book starts slow, not to say it is a slow read, just that it takes awhile for the book to take off into the main story. Oliver's writing however, is wonderful. She could probably write stereo installation instructions and it would be an easy and enjoyable read about nothing. The book flows, and even slow readers will have an easy time reading this book quickly.
I was incredibly taken on the idea of 'love is a disease' amor deliria nervosa as it is called by the characters in the book. As I stated in my first two posts this was what initially drew me into the book. Our main character, and narrator for the story Lena; starts out excited and ready for the cure. Part-way into the book though, she meets a guy, and of course, falls in love. I was originally rolling my eyes because I knew it was going to happen, but it wasn't the worst 'OMG true love at first sight' scenario that I was expecting. The romance seemed more a plot point, to get Lena to where she needs to be for the second book. I'm not going to lie, this book could have possibly been cut in half and still carried as much as it did, but as it flowed so well it wasn't too much of a problem.
As I said before, there is a lot I want to say, but I'm worried about spoiling it. The book was well written and interesting. Overall a good start to what I hope will be an exciting adventure starting in the next book. Pick it up, it's worth a read, and I am incredibly excited about the sequel coming out. I have incredibly high hopes for the next one, and the preview for Pandemonium (coming out March next year) will contain all the spoilers and things I wanted to talk about during this review. I REFUSE TO SPOIL AWESOME THINGS YOU NEED TO READ!

Overall: I'd give Delirium an 8/10, solid start to hopefully an interesting series.
I give my anticipation for book 2, Pandemonium a 10/10.

Go read it too!

Disappearance

Hello dear readers! (I suppose all like, what? 3 of you? haha, okay, okay, I know I have more than 3 readers!) I'm sure you have been wondering where I went for a week! I promise I disappeared for a good reason, and here it is:
I. AM. WRITING. A. NOVEL! I decided to shut the hell up and just do it. I spend the past week gathering my ideas into an outline, doing what little research I needed, and starting. I needed a week with a clear head of nothing else, no advertising for the blog, no posting anything, just purely writing nothing but ideas and prose for the story. I will be back to my regularly scheduled updates starting well, now, with my final review for Delirium tomorrow.

Some of you may be wondering, "Hey, what caused you to FINALLY break down and start writing?" Well that is a fantastic question and my answer is simple: Jackson Pearce. No, I don't know her personally, I REALLY wish I did though, I feel we would totally be friends. Truthfully after reading Sisters Red I found her website, and thereby stumbled upon her vlog (Video Blog) and instantly fell more in love (Not in a creepy stalker way, I promise!). Jackson is fun, entertaining, barely older than I am, and does what she loves. I admire her for that. I spent hours watching her vlogs, all the way from the beginning and was inspired.
Jackson Pearce flat out says in one of her Vlogs (This is not a direct quote I'm summarizing) 'Hey, if you wanna write a novel, do it! Even if you only have time to write for 30 minutes a day, you still have time, everything else is just an excuse.' AND SHE IS RIGHT. I've been putting all my story ideas off for so long, I've forgotten how good it feels to write again, no matter how frustrating it is. I am the only one in my own way, and I stopped that!
I have given myself a deadline though. I gave myself a month (possibly a teeny bit of extra leeway) to finish the rough draft. Now this is not a draft I plan on showing to anyone (except for one person who is getting the unedited copy because I'm afraid of how much I'll trash it in edits), hell looking over what I wrote I possibly want to burn it, it needs a LOT of work. I am hand writing it to keep it safe from the DELETE key on my computer. As soon as I am done, in one month, I will then begin revising it to make it even marginally better for my first readers. I promise to keep all of you up to date with how I am doing, exact word counts when I type what I hand write once a week, and my frustrations and journey.
So, a BIG props to Jackson Pearce for inspiring me, THANK YOU, for entertaining me for HOURS with your Vlog, and book Sisters Red. Basically as soon as I had written the first 1000 words of my work in progress, I went and ordered her other two books. Even when The Violet Corner becomes popular, and publishers and authors send me their ARCs, books to review, and everything else, I will buy Jackson's books (even if I get a free review copy). Seriously, because even if it takes me years to get published, Jackson's words via videos, her motivation, she spoke to me, I can't help but want to support her for her hard work and dreams, and hope one day I can be following my dream as well. Her words were like a wake-up call and my brain is finally waking up.

Seriously, go buy her books now, she's awesome (and so are her books)!

*Please note, I apologize for who knows what kind of deplorable grammar is in this post. I am tired, I do not feel like editing it for hours because I am nitpicky! My new motto is JUST FRICKEN' GET IT DONE ALREADY!

*!UPDATE: I have made it so anyone can comment without registering with google, or openid or anything else, but I turned on moderation, so you can all leave comments, it just may take a little time to update and have your comment post!*