The Fall of Five by Pittacus Lore

The Fall of Five is Lorien Legacies #4, so there may be spoilers for books #1-#3 in this review.

This is such a cool series!  Teens who are actually aliens who aren't evil and plotting world domination.  No stereotypes.  I like that they're unpredictable.  Since this is book #4, we already know the backstory and we know most of the characters pretty well, so the author is able to concentrate more on plot.  That's fun.

Six of the ten are united and hiding out together in a Chicago penthouse when the book opens.  They're busy working on their plot to fight and defeat the Mogadorians when they get a signal from Five.  Yay!  Finally!  Once they collect him, all living Loriens will be together!  However, things do not go as planned.

The whole "things don't go as planned" bit was actually a bit of a bummer for me.  I don't know if I'm jaded or if I'm just not a teen or if the writing was just a little off in this book, but I saw it coming a mile away.  Browsing some other reviews on Goodreads I see that I'm not alone.  I hate that such a big plot point ended up being too obvious and therefore rather anticlimactic.  I won't reveal what it is, just in case you're able to read The Fall of Five without guessing the outcome.

Five isn't the only character with a big reveal of a plot point!  Tiny, quiet Ten/Ella also plays a large role in The Fall of Five.  I'll admit, in the past I've gotten pretty frustrated with Ten.  She seemed like an overly weak character... almost borderline sexism on the part of the author.  But in The Fall of Five we get to see her strength.  It's a quiet strength, but it's there.  We get to see her struggle with and work through a kind of knotty situation.

While it's exciting to go along with the characters on their quest to save Earth, I also enjoy the quieter moments in these books, when the main characters act very much like everyday teens.  When they tentatively date or go on a joyride or make up silly games.  There are moments where I almost forget that they're aliens!

Overall, The Fall of Five is good but not excellent.  I really enjoyed it, because it's a continuation of a story that I've been enjoying through the first three books.  If you were picking it up without any context you might not like it at all.  I would certainly recommend it to someone who had read the first books.  I just hate that it wasn't very action-full.

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by Tynga at Thursday, January 26, 2017

 Alien Contact, aliens, Fiction, HarperCollins, Library, Lorien Legacies, Pittacus Lore, Review, YA, young adult  Leave your mark

✎

The Cage by Megan Shepherd (second opinion)

I'm taking a second look at The Cage by Megan Shepherd.  You can see Stephanie's original review from last year here.

I had the ARC of The Cage sitting on my bookshelf for way too long before I finally read it!  I love love love The Madman's Daughter trilogy by Shepherd, so I was anticipating enjoying this new trilogy just as much.  And I did!  Shepherd is one of my all-over fave YA authors.  I think I've compared her to a female Stephen King for teens in a previous review.  I get sucked into her writing and transported into the book's world and get actual physical goosebumps while I read!

Aliens!  It's not often that you find a book that features aliens that isn't campy.  The aliens in The Cage have kidnapped six teens from earth and placed them into an elaborate cage.  These aliens aren't little green men- they're a very sophisticated race that look vaguely human.  They have the same number of arms and legs and same facial features; the big difference is that their skin is kind of metallic.  They are described as being very solid and a bit on the tall side, which I imagine would make them formidable captors.  These aliens are definitely frightening, with their silence and stoicism and lack of emotions.

Then there's the cage.  The cage, to me, is very reminiscent of a zoo- it's got multiple "habitat" areas that are meant to mimic geographic features of earth, such as a desert area and a town area and a jungle area.  None of them are quite right, of course, but they're just close enough to bug the teens.  (For example, there's daily rain in the jungle area, but no bugs.)  Within the cage are multiple puzzles that the teens can solve over and over again to win tokens.  I kept thinking of seals or killer whales, who are often made to do a trick to earn fish.  It made me cringe.

The setting and the story are very well set up and elaborate.  I won't give anything away, but there's more to the caging of the teens than originally meets the eye.  Even with it's elaborateness and depth, though, the story is never hard to follow.  Shepherd is quite the writer!  However, I didn't feel that the characters were as well developed as they could be.  The reader sees the story from every character's point of view at least once, but a majority of the chapters are from Cora's point of view.  Even with that, though, I didn't always feel like I knew her.  I'd be cheering her independent spirit one moment, then completely confused when she turns around and has feelings for her captor.  We have a whole backstory on her that makes her sound really tough, then she starts to lose it in the cage.  This is the first book in a trilogy, so maybe we get to know other characters better in the second and third books.

The Cage was fantastic!  I'm kind of glad it took me so long to get around to reading it; now I can binge read right into the second and third books without waiting!  Even with the underdevelopment of characters, the unique plot and the whammy of an ending left me wanting more.

P.S. I'll say that I do kind of agree with Stephanie about the aliens' requirement that the teens mate.  (Like animals in a zoo.)  It is pretty creepy.  However, it fits into the story and adds to the terror and suspense, and when characters comply the actions are never described in any detail, so I'm actually ok with it being in the book.  I just wouldn't recommend it to young/immature teens.

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by Tynga at Thursday, October 20, 2016

 Alien Contact, aliens, Balzer + Bray, megan shepherd, Publisher, Review, The Cage, Thriller, YA, young adult  Leave your mark

✎

Moonhead and the Music Machine by Andrew Rae

Joey Moonhead is just like any other teen... a bit average in grades and popularity.  He has a good friend who's nicknamed Spokes, and crushes on the prettiest girl in school.  Moonhead and the Music Machine follows Joey on his quest to win the school's talent show and the pretty girl's heart.  Along the way he discovers a hidden talent and the true friendship that he has with Spokes.

So what makes Moonhead and the Music Machine unique?  Joey literally has a moon for a head.  When school and bullies get to him, his head can just leave his body and go floating off on adventures in space or the jungle or the deep sea or whatnot.  There's kind of a hidden pun in the description of Joey's demeanor:  he comes across as very spacey!  (Ha ha ha ha ha... I think my job in youth librarianship gives me license to make puns like that, right?)  It's not just him, either:  his parents (who both also have moons for heads) are also very absent-minded about him.  When Joey decides to make his own instrument for the talent show, he just kind of halfheartedly throws things together.  He needs help in order to make a truly functioning "music machine," and this help comes from another supernatural kid:  Ghostboy.  (Yup- he's a ghost.)

Another unique feature to Moonhead and the Music Machine:  it's format.  It's a graphic novel!  It's in full color with bold lines and all text/speech in bubbles to make it "pop" from the artwork.  I especially enjoyed the scenes where Joey and/or his friends are playing music, and how that is represented by author Andrew Rae.  He uses these sorta psychedelic swirls and pops to show the flow of the music, and it really works!  I love it.

The reader doesn't get a ton of insight into supporting characters, but you do get to know Moonhead really well, and it's great to see his character grow and develop.  While I was reading the book, I really thought that I had the ending figured out- boy, was I wrong!  You'll never see it coming, I promise.  It's a good surprise, and you'll have to read the book to find out!

Two thumbs up to this YA graphic novel!

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by Tynga at Thursday, July 07, 2016

 Alien Contact, Andrew Rae, Edelweiss, Graphic Novel, Nobrow Press, Review, YA, young adult  Leave your mark

✎

Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi

How should and intelligent race from another world reach out to the entirety  of this world? Approach the world leaders at the UN, land in the middle of the White House lawn?  The  Yherajk are a bit more savvy and came up with a better plan.....hire a Hollywood agent.

Most of this story takes place in and around Los Angeles so, which is just the right backdrop for a tale centered around the entertainment industry.  Even though the book is not abundant with detailed description, the scenery that is there is sufficient to convey the look and feel of story.  This is one of those stories where less is often more.

Agent to the Stars is one of those books where the plot development goes almost hand in hand with the growth of its characters.  We get to see how Thomas Stein, ambitious young Hollywood agent, transitions from up and comer to  somebody noted for something more than his ability to sell the abilities of his clients to TV and movie producers.  Thomas introduces us to some more varied and equally interesting characters.  Everything from aged agents to spoiled performers to ...well.... aliens from another planet.  There are two typical ways to show character development: show or tell.  John Scalzi  opts for a much lesser used method that I won't go into (spoilers).  Suffice it to say, this method also allows the story to move forward.

Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi is an entertaining and amusing read.  This is by no means classic literature but, it is a very fun story.  One that I suspect would make a good movie.  There is very little violence but there is some language here and there as well as frank discussions of human sexuality.  For those reasons I would give this a PG13 rating.

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by Tynga at Wednesday, June 15, 2016

 Alien Contact, Hollywood, John Scalzi, Macmillan, Purchased, Review, Science Fiction  Leave your mark

✎