Book Status

Recently nearly finished Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare.
Reading City of Bones & Les Miserables
Going to read Between Shades of Gray and Tunnels and about 10,0000000 other titles :D

Maze Runner by James Dashner Book Review

The Maze Runner by James Dashner is the first book in the series, Maze Runner (woah what a coincidence). Thomas wakes up in a metal lift with his memory gone. He can remember things such as cows, but he can't remember where he saw them from or who he saw them with (this is actually mentioned in the book). He is lifted out of the cage by a rag-tag group of boys who welcome him to the Glade, which consists of a farmhouse, some fields, and a giant maze. He meets the gladers including a guy that sounds a bit violent and reminds me of Jayne from Firefly (I forgot his actual name, so just bare with me here). This boy recognizes Thomas because he was once stung by a griever and had to go through a painful process to be cured. Now, these grievers are like giant slugs with spikes and needles and pretty creepy, and when you are stung by one you have to go through this process that brings back a bit of your memory, which is what happened to this dude. He recognizes Thomas as a horrible person that put them in this maze, and he also remembers the flare, and is thus against going out of the glade and into the real world. And that is my attempt at a summary without spoilers.

I honestly loved this book so much and it just gets better as you move on in the series. It is set in a post-apocalyptic world and you can see that more as you move along.
Here are some things of interest:

Thomas: He is kind of annoying at first, because he really just complains a lot. He gets a lot better as you move on though, so don't get turned off the book because you don't like him at first.

Teresa: I personally don't know how to feel about her, she is very assertive, which I like, but I can't really relate to her as much as I would have hoped. Though... I really like how her character is developed in the series.

The other bit more minor characters are pretty great. Even the ones that suck are great (like cold pizza...)
My only complaint about this certain book (not the series) is that it is a bit slow in the beginning. For the first bit you are pretty much following Thomas around as he angsts about everything, but things get more interesting as Teresa arrives, so stay with it even if you feel like its slow.

Overall, 8/10. I love this book, but compared to the other books in the series, it's not as great.
Reviews of The Scorch Trials and The Death Cure coming later :D

~Dani

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater Review

The Raven Boys is the first book of Maggie Stievater's series the Raven Cycle. It was released in 2012 and another one of my late night reads. It's been a while since I've done a late night read but I enjoyed this book. 

Synphosis:

Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her. His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.
But Gansey is different. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says very little.
For as long as she can remember, Blue has been told by her psychic family that she will kill her true love. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.

I've always loved books with a bit of magic and that are a little dark in feel. Perhaps that makes me odd but there is something I've always found intriguing. Also I'm a sucker for some romance.

This book is written in alternating points of view. In a way the conflict isn't really a conflict in the sense of that it revolves around a villain but rather a series in which revolves around this concept of ley lines and the control of them. Since this is the first book, it's really just the introduction to the concept of ley lines. Although the concept which the book revolves around can get messy and complicated, Stiefvater did a great job in making it simple enough to understand what details are uncovered. An aspect that I enjoyed wasNoah's role and part of the story. I didn't quite see his existence as surprising and for the first half of the book he played such a small role that he was nearly non-existent. Also I do enjoy the personality of Gansey. It's different from most of the rich boy characters which I usually come across and that's a fresh breath of air. There is a bit of a balance in the book between overly dramatic to normal. If you've ever read the manga Fruits Basket, you'll find that despite it's happy exterior, the characters have relatively depressing families. But in this book there isn't as great of a disparity and lack of happy families. Sure there is unhappiness and inner demons but without that what kind of book would one have. It would be too happy.

My complaints? I'm going to be a bit nit-picky since I'm in that sort of mood. Blue is shown having a life revolved around her family and there is general lack of her having much of a life or connection to her own school and others that aren't the Raven Boys. Blue is in a way the key to everything for the boys. She leads them where they need to go and find and she just knows where everything is because she's a local. The journey to the ley lines is just too simple after she comes into the picture. Also despite the fact the synopsis is pushed more in her point of view, I get the impression that it is Gansy who is the real main character. The book also starts developing a love line between Blue and Adam yet as I'm highly under the impression that there should be one between Blue and Gansy or one will develop but basically romance isn't the upfront of importance in this book. Referenced for sure but a main point it is not.

Rating -8.5/10

Like I said, it's a decent book. I believe it might be better read as a complete series once it is finished as it feels like it could be put together in a very long book. Currently it's solid with some strings left to be tied but it doesn't feel like the end of a book moving on to the next, not quite. There is a clear place at which is meant to be ended at but it doesn't end on a dramatic cliffhanger or with a clear guess for the reader on what the next book will be about. It could end there or you could read on, it really depends.

*lifted from sillyhappyperson's blog(myopinionso.blogspot.com) and re-edited