Review - Unchosen [AUDIO]

Unchosen
by Katharyn Blair
Date: 2021
Publisher: HarperAudio
Reading level: YA
Book type: prose novel
Length: 10 hours 3 minutes
Format: audio book [unabridged]
Source: library

For Charlotte Holloway, the world ended twice.

The first was when her childhood crush, Dean, fell in love—with her older sister.

The second was when the Crimson, a curse spread through eye contact, turned the majority of humanity into flesh-eating monsters.

Neither end of the world changed Charlotte. She’s still in the shadows of her siblings. Her popular older sister, Harlow, now commands forces of survivors. And her talented younger sister, Vanessa, is the Chosen One—who, legend has it, can end the curse.

When their settlement is raided by those seeking the Chosen One, Charlotte makes a reckless decision to save Vanessa: she takes her place as prisoner.

The word spreads across the seven seas—the Chosen One has been found.

But when Dean’s life is threatened and a resistance looms on the horizon, the lie keeping Charlotte alive begins to unravel. She’ll have to break free, forge new bonds, and choose her own destiny if she has any hope of saving her sisters, her love, and maybe even the world.

Because sometimes the end is just a new beginning.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

I was looking through my book blog and realized I hadn't listened to an audiobook in over a decade. What?! Yeah, I know. But, to be fair, audiobooks and I don't always get along. Without visual input of some sort, my mind tends to wander. (Either that, or I fall asleep.) But I've been having trouble lately with starting books and then not finishing them, so I wondered if "reading" an audiobook might work better for me right now.

I haven't tried an audiobook in ages, and I also haven't read a young adult novel in a while. I think I might be getting too old for them. Or maybe I was just too old for this one. When the world has gone to hell and zombies are nipping at your heels, it seems a little ridiculous to start waxing poetic about some guy's shoulders. But... here we are.

I did really like the premise of this one, though. It's basically a post-apocalyptic zombie book, but the zombie thing is really unique. It's based on a curse rather than the usual virus, and it's spread through eye contact. This leads to some interesting work-arounds like the characters having to use mirrors to look at things, lest they get zombified.

Our main character is Charlotte, who's the inconsequential middle sister of three. Her older sister is some badass warrior, and her younger sister is literally the Chosen One who's supposed to save them all. On top of that, Charlotte is in love with her older sister's boyfriend, so things aren't running too smoothly in the family unit.

Once the story started to pick up a bit, and some villains were thrown into the mix, I found myself getting a little lost. Maybe it was because of the audio format, or maybe the book was actually just confusing. The pacing seemed uneven in spots, especially toward the end (which was a little lacklustre after all that buildup). I wasn't that impressed with the villains, either; they were your standard moustache-twirlers who enjoyed being evil just for the sake of it.

This probably wasn't the best book to ease me back into the world of audio. There was an awful lot of repetition, which was painfully obvious in audio format. (What I mean is that certain words and phrases were repeated way too close together, and characters' names were used too often when "he" or "she" would've sufficed.) I also wasn't a fan of this particular narrator, who would lower her voice for the male characters (which sounded silly) and harshen her voice for some of the female characters (making the villains, especially, sound more vapid than menacing). I do realize there's not much a single narrator can do with a book to differentiate the characters other than try to put on different voices. Still, I felt like the somewhat weird character voices were distracting and drew me out of the story at times.

Overall, I give the premise top marks for originality. The execution is a little lacking, though. Still, it will probably appeal to young adult readers who are looking for an interesting post-apocalyptic romp with a touch of romance.

Plot: 3/5
Characters: 3/5
Pace: 4/5
Performance: 4/5
Originality: 4/5
Enjoyment: 3/5

Overall: 3.33 out of 5

Review - We Are Here Forever

We Are Here Forever
by Michelle Gish
Date: 2019
Publisher: Quirk Books
Reading level: A
Book type: graphic novel
Pages: 224
Format: e-book
Source: NetGalley

A hilarious graphic novel in which the human race has been supplanted by a sweeter, kinder, happier species...but are they as innocent as they seem? In this post-apocalyptic comedy, it's survival of the cutest!

After the most adorable apocalypse ever, the human race has vanished from the earth, replaced cute, innocent, playful purple creatures called the Puramus. In this hilarious and epic graphic novel, short interlocking stories follow the purple pals as they explore their new home, form a mini-monarchy, and develop a modern society on par with 21st-century humans. A final act pulls us across time and space in the search for clues to the origins of the Puramus. Along the way, humor and intrigue abound: Can King defend his village when nobody understands what war is? Will Jingle work up the nerve to read her poetry at open mic night? Will Puff Puff ever stop floating? Based on the viral Tumblr comic that gained 18,000 followers in just one year, We Are Here Forever is for fans of post-apocalyptic sci-fi blended with dry comedy and undeniable cuteness. Colorful and cartoony art will you rooting for these cute critters through their absurd adventures. But where did they come from, and what happened to all the humans?

(synopsis from Goodreads)

Apparently, one doesn't need to have read the webcomic to enjoy this graphic novel. I don't know about that. I thought this was one of the weakest graphic novels I've read recently. Most of the chapters are pretty inane, rather boring, and lacking in any real substance. Only the last one really had anything interesting going for it.

The characters are... well, simple. I don't think they're particularly cute. They're basically just purple cushions with butt cheeks. (Butt cheeks can't carry a whole book, though, as I found out the hard way when I read Megan Dong's Sharky Malarkey.) The evolution of the Puramus is probably the only interesting thing about them, and even then, it's not enough to make me want to spend any more time with these characters.

Each chapter seems more flimsy and insubstantial than the last. I got the feeling as I was reading it that the author/illustrator simply enjoys drawing these little creatures. That's fine. And maybe it works better as a webcomic, but it really doesn't work as a graphic novel. Yes, there's an overarching storyline, but it's as thin as gossamer, and the rest of the book nearly breaks it with its mundane weight. One of these boring stories would've been enough; I didn't need to read twelve of them to get the gist.

I think this one will probably only appeal to existing fans of the webcomic. Even so, I'm not sure I see the appeal. I guess this one's just not my thing.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quirk Books for providing a digital ARC.

Plot: 2/5
Characters: 1/5
Pace: 1/5
Writing & Editing: 2/5
Illustration: 2/5
Originality: 2/5

Enjoyment: 0/5

Overall Rating: 1.25 out of 5 ladybugs

Review - Fireflies

Fireflies
by Cory Archie
Date: 2011
Publisher: Underground Voices
Reading level: YA
Book type: short story
Pages: 4
Format: e-book
Source: Underground Voices Magazine

(see this book on Goodreads)

This isn't a story so much as a short scene written to set off a striking bit of imagery. There are hints of character development, but the story's really too short for that to go anywhere. We get an idea of the world the characters are living in, but there's really no story, other than the main character moving through the city to find her friend.

The writing isn't terrible, but the editing could use some work. It was a bit confusing at times trying to figure out who was speaking, due to the lack of dialogue tags. There was even one instance where a second character started speaking in the same paragraph, which further added to the confusion. Let's not forget Noel... who became Noah partway through the story. It definitely needs to be polished a little more.

This could've been the beginning of something intriguing. Alas, that's all it is: a beginning.

Plot: 2/5
Characters: 2/5
Pace: 2/5
Writing & Editing: 2/5
Originality: 3/5

Enjoyment: 2/5

Overall Rating: 2.14 out of 5 ladybugs

Review - World Without Darkness

World Without Darkness (Dam Keeper #2)
by Robert Kondo & Dice Tsutsumi
Date: 2018
Publisher: First Second
Reading level: MG
Book type: graphic novel
Pages: 160
Format: e-book
Source: library

Beyond the dam lies certain death—this is something every citizen of Sunrise Valley knows well. Yet, when a poisonous black tidal wave carries Pig, Fox, and Hippo over the dam and into the wastelands, they don’t find death. Instead they find bustling cities, each with their own dams. Pig can't help but wonder, who is the mysterious dam keeper behind it all?

But he doesn't have time to unravel this mystery. The wave of deadly black fog will return to Sunrise Valley in four days, and its dam can't withstand another assault. In a stolen truck and with a deranged lizard leading the way, Pig and his friends are in a race against the clock. but can they reach home in time?

(synopsis from Goodreads)

I didn't enjoy this one quite as much as the first installment. It's still a beautiful-looking graphic novel with a unique style, dreamy and colourful. But this one felt a little more aimless. I couldn't remember what the three friends were supposed to be doing, and the story didn't really remind us. They're trying to get back home, yes... but I can't really remember why they left in the first place. This book ends with a tantalizing hint of what's to come, but getting to that point felt like slogging through a whole lot of nothing. The mole princess (who's a rhino... I don't get it) and her weird little cult felt juvenile; that whole sequence was just a setup for the next installment in the series, and I could've done without it. Van the lizard is probably my favourite character, but he wasn't used as much as he could've been.

Overall, I was a bit disappointed. I've just come off of reading the first two books in the 5 Worlds series, and their complexity makes this one look weak in comparison. It's a pretty book to look at, and I'm sure when the series is complete it'll fit in nicely with the rest... but, on its own, it just doesn't seem like quite enough.

Plot: 2/5
Characters: 3/5
Pace: 2/5
Writing & Editing: 3/5
Illustration: 3/5
Originality: 4/5

Enjoyment: 3/5

Overall Rating: 2.88 out of 5 ladybugs

Review - Chapter Six

Chapter Six
by Stephen Graham Jones
Date: 2014
Publisher: Tor Books
Reading level: A
Book type: short story
Pages: 32
Format: e-book
Source: Tor.com

"Chapter Six", by Stephen Graham Jones, is an anthropological zombie story about Crain, a grad student, who has a theory of mankind’s evolution. As he and his former professor scavenge on bone marrow left behind by the local zombie horde, he makes his well-reasoned argument.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

This is a different sort of zombie story. Very cerebral. Even though we don't really see any brain-munching going on...

It was just okay for me. It read too much like a textbook, with these two anthropology nerds talking shop. The story did pick up eventually, but only at the end. It almost felt like... well, Chapter Six of a novel. All the technical discussions about evolution would've been okay as part of a larger work, but they took up way too much of this short story and made it kind of boring. The ending makes up for that a little, but it's still not something I'd read again for fun.

Quotable moment:

Once it was dark enough that they could pretend not to see, not to know, they used a rock to crack open the tibia of what had once been a healthy man, by all indications. They covered his face with Crain’s cape, and then covered it again, with a stray jacket.

"Modern sensibilities," Dr. Ormon narrated. "Our ancestors would have had no such qualms."

Plot: 2/5
Characters: 3/5
Pace: 2/5
Writing & Editing: 3/5
Originality: 3/5

Enjoyment: 3/5

Overall Rating: 2.71 out of 5 ladybugs

Review - As Good as New

As Good as New
by Charlie Jane Anders
Date: 2014
Publisher: Tor Books
Reading level: A
Book type: short story
Pages: 32
Format: e-book
Source: Tor.com

From the author of the Hugo-winning "Six Months, Three Days," a new wrinkle on the old story of three wishes, set after the end of the world.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

Quirky and pretentious, this is a short story about a woman who finds a genie and his bottle after the end of the world and sets about trying to make things right. I wasn't impressed with the writing (here we have yet another author who doesn't know how to correctly punctuate dialogue), and the overall tone was both bland and affected. The MC's best friend's name was Julie for the first half, and Julia for the second, and there was even one spot where we were suddenly inside a non-POV character's head for one sentence. Editor?

The main character, Marisol, isn't too bad, but we don't really know much about who she is, beyond a few labels. The descriptions of her weird plays didn't help much, either; those just made me feel like she was trying way too hard to be an artiste. And Richard, the genie... Almost immediately, he's described as looking like a Jew, and then Marisol refers to him as a "self-loathing" genie. I went back and reread how the character was introduced, and I couldn't see anything that indicated self-loathing. So either the author was relying on a tired stereotype, or she was telling the reader about the character, rather than showing (which isn't great, either).

I didn't quite understand the wishes. I mean, I understood what they were, but Marisol's second wish pretty much eliminated the need for the third (and fourth) wishes, so I didn't really understand why she made them the way she did. I got the feeling that she was just trying to show how clever she was. She wouldn't make stupid wishes like all those other wishers of the past. She was too smart to do the things that would lead to apocalyptic results. Well, good for you, Marisol. But you basically wasted two wishes. She had all the time in the world to think about how to overcome any loopholes or paradoxes, so you'd think she would've been able to come up with something better... or at least a little more interesting. (Technically, she wouldn't have had a lot of time, but we're operating under the assumption that frozen microwave dinners have infinite viability. I'm pretty sure you wouldn't want to eat those after a few years, no matter how good your freezer was.)

This review is threatening to overtake the story itself, as far as word count goes, so I'll just end it here. Not terrible, but not great, and probably pretty forgettable. I'm sure there are better genie stories out there.

Quotable moment:

Maybe she would have done more good as a playwright than as a doctor, after all—clichés were like plaque in the arteries of the imagination, they clogged the sense of what was possible. Maybe if enough people had worked to demolish clichés, the world wouldn’t have ended.

Plot: 3/5
Characters: 2/5
Pace: 3/5
Writing & Editing: 2/5
Originality: 2/5

Enjoyment: 2/5

Overall Rating: 2.26 out of 5 ladybugs

Review - The Dam Keeper

The Dam Keeper (Dam Keeper #1)
by Robert Kondo & Dice Tsutsumi
Date: 2017
Publisher: First Second
Reading level: MG
Book type: graphic novel
Pages: 160
Format: e-book
Source: library

Life in Sunrise Valley is tranquil, but beyond its borders lies certain death. A dangerous black fog looms outside the village, but its inhabitants are kept safe by an ingenious machine known as the dam. Pig’s father built the dam and taught him how to maintain it. And then this brilliant inventor did the unthinkable: he walked into the fog and was never seen again.

Now Pig is the dam keeper. Except for his best friend, Fox, and the town bully, Hippo, few are aware of his tireless efforts. But a new threat is on the horizon—a tidal wave of black fog is descending on Sunrise Valley. Now Pig, Fox, and Hippo must face the greatest danger imaginable: the world on the other side of the dam.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

WARNING: minor spoilers - To read this review with the spoilers hidden, check it out on Goodreads.

When I checked this e-book out from the library, I didn't realize it was based on a short film. It does have a very cinematic look to it. The illustrations were probably the best part of the book.

Pig is left to be the dam keeper after his father disappears, and it's up to him to keep the fog at bay. It took a little while for me to realize that the characters are all children. You'd think that a town wouldn't leave its survival up to a young anthropomorphized pig, but I guess we have to suspend disbelief a little bit.

By the time the book ended, the story had only just begun. We've gotten to know the main characters (Pig, whose father was the original dam keeper; Fox, his best friend; Hippo, Fox's friend, who's a bit of a loudmouth blowhard; and now Van, who's some sort of unhinged lizard--and probably my favourite character so far), and we've followed them past the dam into what should be a wasteland... but it turns out that there's more beyond the dam than Pig's father let on.

The art is really beautiful, and I was engaged enough by the story that I wouldn't mind reading the next installment when it comes out later this year.

Plot: 3/5
Characters: 3/5
Pace: 3/5
Writing & Editing: 4/5
Illustration: 4/5
Originality: 4/5

Enjoyment: 3/5

Overall Rating: 3.38 out of 5 ladybugs

Review - Spill Zone

Spill Zone (Spill Zone #1)
by Scott Westerfeld
illustrated by Alex Puvilland & Hilary Sycamore
Date: 2017
Publisher: First Second
Reading level: YA
Book type: graphic novel
Pages: 224
Format: e-book
Source: library

Nobody's ever really explained the Spill. Was it an angelic visitation? A nanotech accident? A porthole opening from another world? Whatever it was, no one's allowed in the Spill Zone these days except government scientists and hazmat teams. But a few intrepid explorers know how to sneak through the patrols and steer clear of the dangers inside the Zone. Addison Merrick is one such explorer, dedicated to finding out what happened that night, and to unraveling the events that took her parents and left her little sister mute and disconnected from the world.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

It's been a while since I've read a book that has me really looking forward to the sequel. I wasn't sure what to expect from this book. It turned out to be a sort of post-apocalyptic thriller with some very creepy creatures. I can't wait to see where this one is going next!

Addison supports herself and her little sister by taking pictures (illegally) inside the Zone. Her forays into the wasteland are interesting enough... but now we've got a plot thread involving the North Koreans (who had their own Spill) and some sort of superpowers.

Some of the images are pretty disturbing, and there's quite a bit of foul language (so if you're sensitive to that, you might want to give this one a pass). I'd say it falls within the young adult category because of these things.

There are so many questions I want answered. What exactly did the Spill spill? What happened to the animals and people within the Zone? What's the deal with Addy's little sister? Where is this all headed?

I guess I'll have to wait until 2018 to find out!

Plot: 4/5
Characters: 4/5
Pace: 4/5
Writing & Editing: 4/5
Illustration: 4/5
Originality: 5/5

Enjoyment: 4/5

Overall Rating: 4.13 out of 5 ladybugs

Review - One Trick Pony

One Trick Pony
by Nathan Hale
Date: 2017
Publisher: Amulet Books
Reading level: MG
Book type: graphic novel
Pages: 128
Format: e-book
Source: library

The aliens have arrived. And they’re hungry for electricity. In the Earth of the future, humans are on the run from an alien force—giant blobs who suck up electrical devices wherever they can find them. Strata and her family are part of a caravan of digital rescuers, hoping to keep the memory of civilization alive by saving electronics wherever they can. Many humans have reverted to a pre-electrical age, and others have taken advantage of the invasion to become dangerous bandits and outlaws. When Strata and her brother are separated from the caravan, they must rely on a particularly beautiful and rare robot pony to escape the outlaws and aliens—and defeat the invaders once and for all.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

First, let's get the weirdly sexist blurb out of the way. This book is not about Strata and her brother. In fact, it's not even just Strata and her brother who get separated from the caravan. Their male friend is with them as well. I have no idea why the blurb makes it sound like a brother/sister act, because in reality, Strata saves the day while the boys do nothing helpful; in fact, they manage to get themselves captured and nearly killed.

So, setting that aside, what do we have? A pretty entertaining graphic novel. It's funny that I picked this up at the same time as Doug TenNapel's Ghostopolis. Both had a sequence with an unusual horse saving its teenage rider from a group of monsters using the exact same trick. The panels were almost identical! Whether Hale read Ghostopolis and decided to use the same sequence, I don't know; I just thought it was an amusing coincidence.

Unlike Ghostopolis, this is a darker story, even though it's intended for a younger audience. The post-apocalyptic landscape was creepy, and the aliens (called pipers because of the pi-pi-pi noise they make) were downright horrifying. I'm kind of glad this one was done with a monochromatic scheme, because full colour might've given me nightmares.

The story was quite imaginative, and I liked the whole idea of the world that was built here. I do have one major complaint with the story, however, and that was the ending. It was way too abrupt. If there was ever a book that needed an epilogue, it's this one.

My other complaint is about a minor (but still irritating) issue. This graphic novel had the smallest text I've seen so far. I couldn't even read it on a 21" monitor without having to zoom in. That's part of the reason why it took me so long to get through it, even though it's fairly short. Zoom, scroll, click... It was kind of a waste of time. And it's not like there wasn't room for larger text. I have a feeling that if I'd read this in physical form, I would've needed a magnifying glass.

All in all, this is a cool story with decent characters and some wonderfully horrible villains. Oh, and a title that makes perfect sense once you read the book. But I won't spoil that for you. Go check it out for yourself!

Plot: 4/5
Characters: 3/5
Pace: 3/5
Writing & Editing: 3/5
Illustration: 3/5
Originality: 4/5

Enjoyment: 3/5

Overall Rating: 3.25 out of 5 ladybugs