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!: