Books: Mockingjay (The Hunger Games), Specials & Extras (Uglies series)

P.s: Never read my reviews if you don't want any spoilers!

I'm really behind on posting book reviews! Mockingjay was supposed to be up months ago but I've only got around it now lol No worries though, coz I re-read the whole Hunger Games series and now the story is once again fresh in my mind! (Okay fine, I finished re-reading it weeks ago and have since then read at least 3 or 4 books but still!) There's nothing to it honestly, I just love this story so much! The characters in the book really grows on you and I still kinda hate Collins for killing some of them off. Ugh. It hurts!

 

Mockingjay by Susan Collins

Mockingjay is the third and final installment to The Hunger Games series and is my second favorite book out of the three. I just love the way Collins describes the tension between Peeta and Katniss when they rescued him from the Capitol after you know, President Snow tortured Peeta for 'information'. Ever since the first book, Katniss has been thinking of never having any kids and yet towards the end, she has 2 kids with Peeta which I think is very sweet but she had them to please Peeta. So I guess she never wanted kids after all.

I have mixed feelings about the ending. I like that Katniss ended up with Peeta because I've never really cared for Gale (which is unfortunate because in the movie Gale is better looking wtf). However, Katniss's perspective of her 'new world' is quite grim and she talks of her children playing on a graveyard and how she learnt to move on and 'keep busy'. I guess I was hoping Collins would write something more positive like how the people don't starve anymore and are happier and stuff. I mean sure, people died but that was years ago before her children are born. It's kinda sad to see her so hung up with the past and instead of living life to the fullest with her family, she's still living in the past (kinda). But I guess once you were a tribute, those things stay with you forever so I can't blame her.   

To sum up, here are the parts that I love about Mockingjay:

- Anything regarding Peeta and his recovery

- Katniss and her team fighting their way to the Capitol

- Moments between Finnick and his wife

- Katniss shooting and killing Coin

Specials by Scott Westerfeld

I didn't know this was the final book where Tally Youngblood was featured as the main character! Specials is the third installment in the Uglies series. Turns out the final installment, Extras is all about this Japanese girl and it was three years after the third book, Specials happened. 

So this is where it gets interesting, Tally is finally a Special! She was operated on and have strong ceramic bones and super speed, which I think is pretty cool. They gave her sharp teeth too and her team consists of five or so other Specials just like her, including her best friend Shay. They also have these tattoos on their body and arms which flashes with light according to their moods. I really have no idea what that looks like so use your imagination for this. ;) Anyway, there's a catch. They make you stronger and faster with animalistic features and instincts yes, but they also alter your brain into thinking that you are the superior species and the others are weak and disgusting.

This is obviously a huge problem because the love of her life, Zane is still a Pretty unlike her. Even worse is that Zane was 'crippled' after his brain injury which causes his hands to tremble and that made it harder for Tally to see past his imperfections. Her mission throughout this book is to get Zane to be turned into a Special just like her so that they can be together because she simply can't stand looking at him as a Pretty. Anyways, shit happened and Zane died. It's a real bummer because Tally was trying so hard to remember him as the person she loved instead of just another weak Pretty (thanks to the brain alteration).

Towards the end, all the Specials were cured of their brain alterations except Tally. She and David decided to live in the wild and protect nature. If you didn't know, in Tally's world preserving the nature is extremely important because they knew the dangers of excessive cutting down of forests. Tally lived in a futuristic city 'three hundred years in the future'.

Favorite parts of Specials:

- Any moment depicting the use of Tally's special abilities

- Moments between Tally and Zane 

- When they first arrived at Diego city

- Tally's journey to the city

Extras by Scott Westerfeld

Extras is set 3 years after Specials and follows a Japanese girl named Aya. I was kinda disappointed that the author didn't continue with Tally's story but I guess her quest was done. This book did feature Tally nonetheless as Aya gets to meet her. It's interesting to read Aya's view of Tally because before this we readers get to be in Tally's head and know exactly what she is feeling and thinking but from a third person's view it can be interpreted differently. I'm not a big fan of Aya however, she seems very nosy to me and maybe that's coz she's a journalist or something along that line and is always looking to uncover new and interesting stories about other people.

In this book, Aya pretended to be friends with this secret circle of girls who did really crazy stuff at night. Basically she wanted to write a story about them but in the end she started to really love doing all those stunts but was discovered by the girls and was shunned instead. That's all I'm gonna tell you, read the book to find out what happened!

Overall, Uglies is a pretty good series in general although I find myself preferring The Hunger Games and Delirium. 

Books: Entwined + Pretties

Been doing a lot of beauty posts lately so I figured I could share with you guys my thoughts on a couple of books that I've recently bought and read! I go through phases where I'll be really into books and I'll drop whatever I'm doing and just read and read the whole day. Then I'll go back to my usual routine for a few months just to jump right back into it again. It's always either books or youtube. lol

 Entwined by Heather Dixon

I bought this a few weeks back along with Pretties by Scott Westerfeld from a visit to Best Eastern. I almost squealed when I saw this! Been wanting to read it ever since Elle from Allthatglitters21 on youtube mentioned it briefly in one of her book hauls. I bought quite a few of the books she recommended mainly because most of them are good!

Entwined is inspired by the classical story '12 dancing princesses' and the majority of the storyline follows the fairytale less some of the other parts. I read this book not knowing what to expect and it surprises me that the author would include magical objects in the storyline like the magical sugar tongs which hops around and also the big clock.

Azalea, the eldest of the 12 sisters found a secret entrance to a place where she and her sisters can dance every night without the King knowing. So this place is guarded by this enchanting vampire-like person called the Keeper. It's understandable that Azalea would be attracted to the Keeper. I mean, this story is set in what, the 17th century?? In that era, Azalea's bound to fall in love with anyone who came in contact with her! lol I don't wanna give away any spoilers but long story short, there's something really wrong with the Keeper and soon enough Azalea started to find out stuff about him...

Give this a read if you're interested in stories like this. I'd give this a 7/10. It's kinda fun creating faces for the characters in your head! lol 

Pretties by Scott Westerfeld

This is the second installment of the Uglies series. Pretties picked up where the first book left off, where Tally agreed to be turned pretty so that the people from the Smokes can use her to test out the medicine which cures pretties. Apparently when you've been turned pretty, doctors mess with your brain too making you dumb and kinda stupid. To keep the peace.

Anyway I'm kinda disappointed the author didn't do much to describe the new pretty Tally. All I know is that after the surgery, Tally was given silver colored eyes and that's it. She's taller too but that doesn't really help with the visualization of this new and improved Tally. haha maybe I'm too fussy but given that Tally is the main character in this book, I really think they should've describe her more than they did. I'm also surprised to learn that the majority of this book is focused in New Pretty Town. I thought David, her first lover would save her from that place. 

I'm looking forward to reading the third installment, Specials. Because Tally is gonna go under the knife again! But this time she's gonna look animalistic. Like a cat, or a leopard. Specials have more built to them and are stronger and faster than any of the other types of people so I'm kinda excited to see what this new (again) Tally can do! As for Shay, she can GTH. lol I don't really care for her character to be honest.

I like this better than the first book, Uglies! A solid 7.5/10!

Books: Uglies & The Hunt

So I just recently decided to pick up a book again after not reading for over a month. Can't help it, it's either this or youtube. Gee I'm so productive this holiday. Anyways if you know me you'll know I can read the whole day non-stop; but only if the book is good of course!

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

This I bought before the holidays which is a few months back and I only recently (yesterday lol) finished it. The one thing that attracted me to this series is the fact that it revolves around people getting plastic surgery. People as in every single one of the population in the country. That alone is enough to make me read the book! haha

The story is set hundreds of years after us, like The Hunger Games. And after the people turn sixteen, they will undergo plastic surgery to look pretty. They even have towns called Uglyville where uglies below the age of sixteen live and New Pretty Town where the newly-turned pretties live. From what I read in the book, all the young pretties do is basically party their ass off. Believe it or not they also have 'middle pretties' for adults and older pretties. 

To put things short, the storyline centers around a girl, Tally who wanted to be pretty when she turns sixteen but by then her best friend, Shay escaped so the authority will only perform the surgery on Tally if she managed to find Shay. So off she goes into the wild to look for Shay and stuff. Pretty interesting but I bet the second book of this series will be even better! Can't wait to get my hands on the other three books!

The Hunt by Andrew Fukuda

I just finished this earlier and erhmahgerddd the cliffhanger is good! I'm not sure how new is this I just picked it up at the '2nd at 50% off' section in Popular. The main character is obviously a guy, Gene and he lives in a world where humans are basically almost extinct and vampires rule the world. Funnily enough, the word 'vampire' didn't come up at all in the book. Because a vampire is considered 'people' and a human is called a 'heper'. Gene is able to live among the vampires without them finding out about his true identity but of course we all know they are gonna find out soon enough.

The way the author Fukuda wrote this is very descriptive and I feel like I am watching a movie! But I guess the 'people' are more like creatures than anything because they 'devour' humans, not only drinking the blood but actually eating humans! Honestly though, this book really reminded me of the movie Daybreakers where the streets are empty during the day when people sleep and they go to work at night. There's even one chapter in the book where Gene talks about going to school at night and he can't see what the teacher wrote on the board! Apparently these things can see in the dark pretty well.

This is a really interesting one and I can't wait to read the next installment of this series! I think I say that for just about all the books that I read haha but seriously. This one's good. ;p

"He's much slower. The sun is melting away not only his flesh, but his muscles. His legs have become squishy bags of pus now, his calf and thigh muscles quickly disintegrating. With a cry. He leaps up at the closing glass wall."

 - Excerpt from The Hunt by Andrew Fukuda