The Carnival of Lost Souls: A Hancuff Kid Novel by Laura Quimby {Review}

Publisher: Amulet Books

Publish Date: October 1, 2010

Source: Library

Goodreads

Jack Carr has been shuttled from foster home to group home to foster home his entire life. The only constant has been his interest in magic, especially handcuff escapes like those mastered by his hero, Harry Houdini. When he's placed with the Professor, however, he feels like he's finally found a home -- but his new guardian is hiding a dangerous secret.
Years ago the Professor bartered his soul to the undead magician Mussini, and when the payment is due, he sends Jack in his place. Jack must travel with Mussini into the Forest of the Dead, a place between the real world and the afterlife, where he's forced to perform in Mussini's traveling magic show. If he stays in the Forest long enough, he'll die himself. To find his way home, he'll have the help of Mussini's other "minions"--kids stolen just like Jack--and his wits, nothing more. Can he follow the example of his hero, Houdini, and escape the inescapable? 

I had a lot of hope for The Carnival of Lost Souls because I’ve always been a fan of magic. When I was younger I actually used to collect tricks and anytime there was a magic show on tv, I was all over it. I was hoping this book would bring that feeling back, but it just wasn’t the same.

Nothing at all really worked for me. The story itself felt a little disjointed. Everything moved so quickly I was often left figuring I’d missed a few pages. It wasn’t moving in an actiony way or anything either, it was just all over the place.

Another thing, Jack seemed to know more than I did at times even when he shouldn’t have. He’d be all “is X character really good? Is he going to save me?” when I had absolutely no evidence to prove that character X could have any sliver of good.

                                                                       

Finally, there this weird little romance that just sprouted up out of nowhere at the end. It was very…confusing.

The Nutshell: I really wanted to like The Carnival of Souls, but the disjointed feel of it all just left me feeling discontent. I wish I had enjoyed it more, but it just wasn’t the case. This isn’t a book I would go around recommending, but it’s always possible that someone else might enjoy it :]

Pages: 352

Series: No

Rating: 2 stars

Psych Major Syndrome by Alicia Thompson {Review}

Publisher: Hyperion Books CH

Publish Date: August 11, 2009

Source: Library

Using the skills you've learned so far in Introduction to Psychology, please write a brief self-assessment describing how things are going in your freshman year.Presenting Concerns:The Patient, Leigh Nolan (that would be me), has just started her first year at Stiles College. She has decided to major in psychology (even though her parents would rather she study Tarot cards, not Rorshach blots).
Patient has always been very good at helping her friends with their problems, but when it comes to solving her own...not so much.
Patient has a tendency to overanalyze things, particularly when the opposite sex is involved. Like why doesn't Andrew, her boyfriend of over a year, ever invite her to spend the night? Or why can't she commit to taking the next step in their relationship. And why does his roommate Nathan dislike her so much? More importantly, why did Nathan have a starring role in a much-more-than-friendly dream?
Aggravating factors include hyper-competitive fellow psych majors, a professor who's badly in need of her own psychoanalysis, and mentoring a middle-school-aged girl who things Patient is, in a word, naive.
Diagnosis:Psych Major Syndrome

I found this one a while back while sifting through Amazon’s bargain books and though it sounded pretty cute. Sadly, in reality it just ended up falling flat for me.

Normally I’m not all or nothing when it comes to characters. I like to give them the benefit of the doubt since human beings have flaws and make mistakes, but sometimes there are flaws that I just can’t get past and end up completely ruining the character for me. Sadly, that was Leigh for me. She couldn’t see ANYthing that was right in front of her. Not the dude that was throwing himself at her, not the boyfriend who was an ass, and not the mopey way she acted about everything. I just felt like grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking some sense into her.

Another minor Leigh annoyance, who says “I love you” as easily as that?! I don’t want to give it away or anything, but really? I’m of the firm belief that you should actually have a relationship before you decide to jump on the I Love You boat and sail away into the sunset.

There were little definitions of Psychology terms at the beginning of every chapter and though they should have been cute, they just kind of confused me. They were a little too clinical for my taste and I found myself slightly confused after reading most of them.

The Nutshell: Overall, Psych Major Syndrome was an okay read. Leigh was much too blind to everything around her for me really connect. It might have been one thing had she been 14 rather than 18 and in college, but alas, this was not the case. The overall story wasn’t too bad, but Leigh was impossible for me to get past.

Pages: 336

Series: No

Rating: 2 stars

Possession by Elana Johson

Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publish Date: June 2011
Source: Library

Vi knows the rule: Girls don't walk with boys, and they never even think about kissing them. But no one makes Vi want to break the rules more than Zenn...and since the Thinkers have chosen him as Vi's future match, how much trouble can one kiss cause? The Thinkers may have brainwashed the rest of the population, but Vi is determined to think for herself.But the Thinkers are unusually persuasive, and they're set on convincing Vi to become one of them...starting by brainwashing Zenn, Vi can't leave Zenn in the Thinkers' hands, but she's wary of joining the rebellion, especially since that means teaming up with Jag. Jag is egotistical, charismatic, and dangerous -- everything Zenn's not. Vi can't quite trust Jag and can't quite resist him, but she also can't give up on Zenn.This is a game of control or be controlled. And Vi has no choice but to play.

First of all, that description almost tells a different story than what the pages actually hold.

This book just didn't do it for me. It's really sad because it totally should have done it for me. I love dystopian and learning about new technology and societies which was a lot of what Possession was about. Something about it was just off though. I can't quite put my finger on it. It's like when you can't remember the name of a person or a book or whatever and it bugs you ALL day. That's what this book did to me.

My high school English teachers used to preach the awesome powers of transitions. Sometimes it was a little obsessive, and I was all "for the love of all that is good, shut up already!" but after this book I'm a little more like "Preach it, sister!" What I mean by that is this: It felt like there were no transitions here at all. I was constantly wondering what amount of time had passed or how in the world we got to where we were. The beginning especially gave me this feeling. I was like "uhhmmm...did I miss something?" I was lost pretty often and that's definitely not how I want to feel in my reading.

Sadly, I wasn't really a fan of any of the characters either. Vi was whiny, Jag was often rude and sometimes controlling, and Zenn seemed like a controlling wimp. Don't ask me how that last one is possible, just trust me that it is. I did like Ty pretty well, but she wasn't really there much, sadly.

Also, the ending. What was up with that?

Final Thoughts: I had pretty high hopes for this one. Not hopes from hearing buzz or anything, but I kind of automatically put dystopians on a pedestal. Sadly, this one didn't meet my standards. I definitely wouldn't recommend this to anyone who's new to dystopian, but a veteran like it.


Pages: 416
Series: Possession #1
Rating: 2 stars

Slice of Cherry by Dia Reeves

Kit and Fancy Cordelle are sisters of the best kind, best friends, best confidantes, and best accomplices. The daughters of the infamous Bonesaw Killer, Kit and Fancy are used to feeling like outsiders, and that's just the way they like it. But in Portero, where the weird and wild run rampant, the Cordelle sisters are hardly the oddest or most dangerous creatures around. 

It's no surprise when Kit and Fancy start to give in to their deepest desire - the desire to kill. What starts as a fascination with slicing open and stitching up quickly spirals into a gratifying murder spree. Of course, the sisters aren't killing just anyone, only the people who truly deserve it. But the girls have learned from their father's mistakes and know that a shred of evidence could get them caught. So when Fancy stumbles upon a mysterious world, she opens a door to endless possibilities...

This book was...weird. Incredibly weird. And quite creepy as well. Now, I suppose I should have known what I was getting myself into with the synopsis, but I was hoping there was more to the story (not to mention the cover which really drew me in), especially with all the talk of doors and other worlds. Sadly, it wasn't what I was hoping for.

This book was so full of blood and gore, I might as well have only spent 2 hours watching a slasher movie and gotten the same effect. Sure, there was a little bit about the sisters' relationship with each other and their relationships by other people, but that was a little hard to get into amidst all the blood. Did I mention there was a LOT of blood?

Besides all the gore, the writing didn't impress me all that much. I found myself feeling lost a few times simply because things were introduced but not explained. Sometimes it felt like I was just expected to know what someone's expression looked like or what something specific to that world meant automatically. It also felt like some situations just popped up out of nowhere. The transitions were greatly lacking, in my opinion.

Final thoughts: This book was definitely not my taste. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone either. I finished expecting something different to happen, but nothing ever did. The moral here would likely be "don't expect something different from a synopsis that tells you something directly."

Publisher: Simon Pulse
Publish Date: January 2011
Pages: 505
Series: No
Rating: 2 stars

Pegsus by Robin McKinley

Princess Sylviianel has always known that on her twelfth birthday she too would be bound to her Pegasus. All members of the royal family have been thus bound since the Alliance was made almost a thousand years ago; the binding system was created to strengthen the Alliance, because humans and pegasi can only communicate formally, through specially trained Speaker magicians. Sylvi is accustomed to seeing pegasi every day at the palace, but she still finds the idea of her binding very daunting. The official phrase is that your Pegasus is your “Excellent Friend.” But how can you be friends with someone you can’t talk to?But everything is different for Sylvi and Ebon from the moment they meet at her binding – when they discover they can talk to each other. They form so close a bond that it becomes a threat to the status quo – and possibly to the future safety of their two nations. For some of the magicians believe there is a reason humans and pegasi should not fully understand each other.

 I was really not a fan of this book. I’m unsure if it is because I’m not a fan of fantasy as I once thought or if it really was the book.

This book moved terribly slowly. So slow, in fact, I found myself skimming at times instead of immersing myself in the story which I absolutely never do. I found myself waiting and waiting for something to happen but nothing ever really seemed to. If something did happen, I was only aware of it because the characters said it was a big deal I did not, myself, feel like it was a problem as I normally would were the story to have captured my attention and grabbed hold of my emotions.

It wasn’t as if the terrible flow of the story was due to great description either. I was constantly wondering what this or that looked like or why a certain action was done or existed. It was as if this fantasy world was created, but I wasn't alerted to its details.

I stuck with the book because I always felt as if something was going to happen. Something did finally happen at the end, but it occurred in the last 5-10 pages and didn’t wrap anything up at all. I’m terribly disappointed in the ending because I would not pick up the second book to go through all the waiting once again just to discover the outcome. I normally do not leave a series unfinished, but I this is one that will have to stay open-ended for me.

Publisher: Putnam Juvenile

Release Date: November 2010

Pages: 404

Series: 1/? (A sequel to come unsure if more)

Rating: 2 stars