Inhuman - Kat Falls

Pages: 384

Publisher: Scholastic

Release Date: 24^th September 2013

Edition: e-proof, review copy

Other Titles by this Author: Dark Life, Rip Tide

In a world ravaged by mutation, a teenage girl must travel into the forbidden Savage Zone to recover lost artefacts or her father’s life is forfeit.

America has been ravaged by a war that has left the eastern half of the country riddled with mutation. Many of the people there exhibit varying degrees of animal traits. Even the plantlife has gone feral.

Crossing from west to east is supposed to be forbidden, but sometimes it’s necessary. Some enter the Savage Zone to provide humanitarian relief. Sixteen-year-old Lane’s father goes there to retrieve lost artefacts – he is a fetch. It’s a dangerous life, but rewarding – until he’s caught.

Desperate to save her father, Lane agrees to complete his last job. That means leaving behind her life of comfort and risking life and limb – and her very DNA – in the Savage Zone. But she’s not alone. In order to complete her objective, Lane strikes a deal with handsome, roguish Rafe. In exchange for his help as a guide, Lane is supposed to sneak him back west. But though Rafe doesn’t exhibit any signs of ‘manimal’ mutation, he’s hardly civilised...and he may not be trustworthy.

I absolutely loved Kat Falls’ debut Dark Life from a couple of years ago, and the sequel too, so I was really excited to hear about Inhuman.

Once again, I was blown away by Kat Falls’ original and fantastic world-building. I think it’s quite difficult to be individual in a sub-genre so saturated like dystopia is, but Inhuman did it effortlessly. Eighteen years ago, a company accidentally released a plague upon North America causing genetic mutations in humans and animals (that remind me of the creatures of The Island of Doctor Moreau) and both to go feral and attack uninfected people. Within days, the population was halved and the infected East was cut off from the West. Cool, right?

I was utterly captivated by the Feral Zone (the area of the East away from the protection of the Western line guards). Hardy people surviving against all the odds and making up communities again; horrifying, cute, dangerous and downright ugly mixtures of animal and human roam the wild East; ridiculous danger and some of the bravest people Lane had ever met – a perfect setting for a novel. I kind of want to go there if I’m honest; Kat Falls seems to have that effect on me with her novels...

As well as a stunning set-up, Inhuman really delivered on the characters as well. I was really unsure at first, but I grew to love Lane. She changed from a prissy, precocious little girl into a brave, loyal and plain good person that I’d genuinely like to be friends with. Rafe and Everson also captured my heart. I love that they were so, so different, but in a way that complemented each other and different aspects of Lane’s personality. They worked really well as a team and I enjoyed the friendship-with-definite-lust-and-potential-for-love triangle. They reminded me of season two/early three Elena, Stefan and Damon from The Vampire Diaries. Whom I love endlessly. I’m a fan of the fact that I can’t predict what will happen between them; it’s refreshing.

Inhuman is a fast-paced, addictive novel that I didn’t want to end. Next book please!

Received via a Catching Fire promotional selection from Scholastic/NetGalley.

Sophie

My Adult Book TBR

Over the last year or so I’ve been a lot more tuned into the adult novels that are being published across the board. This has led to me collecting them from second hand bookshops, Kindle bargains and the odd normal purchase. But with the sheer volume of review copies I receive, they are put to the bottom of my TBR pile and nearly forgotten about. I accumulated a fair few; here’s a selection:

The Snow Child, Eowyn Ivey

Released last year by Headline to rave reviews, The Snow Child blew everyone away. They were entranced by a haunting story set in the Alaskan wilderness and I snapped up a copy ready to gobble it down. But it feels like something to savour and relish and I’m still waiting for a perfectly cold and snowy weekend.

How to Be a Woman, Caitlin Moran

I bought this months and months ago to accompany what I was learning about feminism and women’s writing in two of my university modules and compare a modern aspect, but my essays changed topics and I never outright needed to read it. As I’ve become more and more aware of the issues around feminism, the desire to read it has gotten even stronger, but it just hasn’t happened.

Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen

I found a second hand copy of this in fantastic condition in one of my favourite places in Bath: a ship in the Guildhall Market crammed full of a great selection of books where I’ve snapped up quite a few treasures. I picked this up because I adored the film with Robert Pattinson and it made me cry. I hadn’t even realised it was a novel and I was so excited when I found out!

Instructions for a Heatwave, Maggie O’Farrell

This book has flooded my Twitter feed all summer and I downloaded the sample and loved what I read of it. I wasn’t quite prepared to pay for the hardback (side note: why on Earth are adult hardbacks so insanely expensive?!) so I waited. When I saw it was only £3-odd on Kindle last week, I snapped it up. Like with The Snow Child, I’m waiting for the opportunity to savour this; I think it’s going to be gorgeously atmospheric.

Billy and Me, Giovanna Fletcher

I’m a huge fan of Gi. I’ve followed her on Twitter for ages and seeing her with Tom (from McFly) in his YouTube videos made me fall in love with her. I was really excited and intrigued when she released the news of her book deal and I pre-ordered the Kindle version as soon as I could. I meant to read it straight away but it’s pretty long so I kept putting it off.

Tigers in Red Weather, Liz Klaussmann

I don’t quite remember how I heard about this one but it became one of those books whose price I would check on Amazon every couple of days. It’s not something I’d usually read: the story two cousins trying to hold together normal life during a hot, sultry summer but there’s just something about it. I think it’s going to be another one full of atmosphere that wraps you up and refuses to let you go.

The Help, Kathryn Stockett

For a debut author, Kathryn Stockett made quite a splash with The Help. After rave reviews it was turned into an Oscar-nominated film. But that wasn’t what made me snap up a copy at the same time as I got Water for Elephants. It was speaking to my mum after she finished it and was blown away. She was telling me how ashamed she felt to be white due to what she’d read and I’m fascinated by a book that can make someone feel that strongly.

One Day, David Nicholls

I’m so, so behind with One Day. It was all over the place for several years and though I got myself a copy, I wanted to wait until the fuss died down. I often find that reading something after a few months of insane hype that it always disappoints. Hopefully by the time I get around to this I will have forgotten most of the praise. Oh, and one of my uni lecturers ruined the ended for me; he announced it in the middle of a lecture in first year. I’ll never forgive you for that Bill...

There you have it. A selection of the many adult novels I have waiting for me to devour that I’ll get around to, one day that is.

Do you end up leaving non-YA books to languish on the TBR? Which of these should I start with? What adult books do you have waiting to be read?

Sophie

Monsters - Ilsa J Bick

Pages: 671

Publisher: Quercus

Release Date: 26^th September 2013

Edition: UK paperback, review copy

Other Titles by this Author: Ashes, Shadows, Drowning Instinct

From the ashes, monsters will rise.

Alex is tough. She has survived the EMP blast, she has lived among the flesh-eating Changed, and she has been separated from for months.

And she hasn’t given up.

But on the brink of starvation and in the grips of a winter that just won’t end. Alex discovers a new and terrible truth.

The Changed are still evolving. And...they’ve had help.

The terrifying conclusion to the Ashes trilogy.

The first book in this trilogy absolutely blew me away and I thoroughly enjoyed books two as well. Although I enjoyed the finale, I did feel a little less strongly about Monsters.

So much happens in each instalment of this series that the brief catch up with each character at the beginning of Monsters was essential. I think I would be completely lost otherwise. As I plowed through this novel I began to think that there was too much going on with too many characters to keep track of properly. The action is utterly relentless and every character I’d grown to care about was constantly in mortal danger and it became a little tiring. It was so expected for them to nearly die and then miraculously survive that I got to the point that I just wanted Tom, Alex and Ellie to be reunited and the novel to end. Especially as this continued for a mammoth 670; it was too long. Although there were no slow bits and there was nothing I would have cut, I do think it should have been split into two separate novels.

Even though I had issues with Monsters, I have to applaud Ilsa J Bick’s writing, ideas and story-telling. This trilogy is an epic undertaking. The whole idea behind the Zap causing the world to end and something to trigger in people who then become people-eating monsters is so original in a genre saturated with sameness. The presence of the monster grew from something abstract that affected the enemies of the characters into an entity in itself with an almost physical presence, wants and reactions. Alex’s character took on depths and lengths only made possible by the monster, in fact, even though it was killing her, it saved her life many times.

I have to admit that for most of Monsters I was just wishing for Alex and Tom to be reunited. As a couple in a YA series it was so, so weird for them to spend most of the trilogy apart. I almost couldn’t remember what they were like together so I didn't always connect with their respective feelings for each other. Strangely, I also grew fond of Wolf as Alex did. though he never spoke his human character came through so strongly that I part of me wanted him to go full circle.

Even though I didn’t love Monsters, Ilsa J Bick’s writing is beautiful and her story-telling is exquisite so she’s an auto-buy for me. I really hope her next novel, White Space, makes it over here.

Thanks to Quercus for sending me a copy for review.

Sophie

Out and About: McFly's 10th Anniversary Show

WHAT: McFly’s 10^th Anniversary

WHERE: The Royal Albert Hall

WHEN: 22^nd September, 8:30pm

TICKET PRICE: £37.50 (incl. booking fee and postage)

What was it?

Near the beginning of the year, McFly announced that they would play a one-off show at the Royal Albert Hall to celebrate their 10^th Anniversary and it was promised to be special. Tickets finally went on sale and sold out in under three minutes. There was uproar so another three dates were added to make a four-day extravaganza of fandom partying.

One of my best friends, Jess, a McFly extremist from the very beginning immediately asked me to go. I couldn’t afford it at the time (student life, aye?), but she missed out on the tickets anyway. I knew she would try again but heard nothing from her so assumed she didn’t manage to snag any. Along came my 21^st birthday and Jess arrived with my card and a bottle of Malibu for a night out. Inside the card was a print out for two tickets to the final night show! I told her off and then gave her a massive hug and poured her a drink. Now THAT is how to make your friends love you endlessly, right there.

The Show:

To begin an excellent day, me and Sara journeyed to Greenwich to see my lovable bestie’s (Jess) new student digs and meet her housemates, cue severe uni nostalgia and jealously. After a tour of the lovely place and a rather yummy burger, we trundled into central London to meet Nat (a Twitter friend of Sara’s) where we chatted and drank in a pub until It Was Time.

I love that moment when you get off the Tube and there are hordes of people who you know are going to the same place as you. It just makes me bubble with excitement and the atmosphere as we walked through the tunnel from South Ken to the Royal Albert Hall had us all bouncing. We arrived at the gorgeous, gorgeous Hall to find people EVERYWHERE. We spent a good ten minutes struggling to figure out which door was ours and where the hell the merch stand was.

The Merch: well, McFly don’t have the best reputation when it comes to appealing merch so we were both hopeful but prepared to be disappointed. They actually weren’t bad! All three were specific Royal Albert Hall ones, two black tees and a white tank top. Naturally, I liked the white one which was the most expensive at thirty-freaking-pounds!! The others were £20 which I expected. I couldn’t believe it, to be honest. THEN both of the black ones only had smalls left so I had to get the white one (which I’m actually wearing right now...).

The show itself was unbelievable. They played a nearly two-hour set, twenty-one songs, with no supports and we had a fantastic view from row 15 in the stalls. We were so close that we could see the expressions on their faces and I could actually see all four boys! I’ve seen them twice before and I’m pretty sure that’s never before been the case...

The boys played all of their biggest hits: ‘Obviously’, ‘5 Colours in Her Hair’, ‘Love is Easy’, ‘I’ll Be Ok’, ‘Star Girl’, ‘Shine a Light’ and an encore of ‘All About You’ and ‘The Heart Never Lies’. It was epic. Then were the special treats of Dougie singing ‘Transylvania’, Tom’s tribute to musical theatre with ‘McFly: The Musical’, Danny’s acoustic version of ‘Walk in the Sun’ which brought him and most of the audience to tears, the little-played ‘Little Johanna’, their new single and the appearance of James Bourne and Matt Willis.

YES. Two thirds of Busted were there!! Having seen Charlie Simpson at Warped last year, I’ve now officially seen Busted (ssh, that totally works that way). They played ‘Year 3000’ and ‘Air Hostess’ with the boys and joined in with ‘Shine a Light’. It was incredible. The entire Hall went INSANE. Matt Willis looked like he was having the time of his life. It was a bit of an ‘aww’ moment really.

To top it off, they couldn’t have picked a more perfect venue. A suitably grand venue for a momentous moment for the boys and their fans. The history, grandure and awe-inspiring Royal Albert Hall was set alight (not literally) with a massive glitter ball, an amazing light show and indoor fireworks as they played their encore. It was also the perfect backdrop for four such beautiful guys. Gah, Danny Jones. And Dougie who looked like a hippie pirate.

Source: Tumblr

The McFly 10^th Anniversary gig at the Royal Albert Hall was a once in a lifetime show. It was hot, sweaty, emotional and an electric atmosphere. Perfection. I had serious Post-Gig Depression for a good few days afterward... Can I go again please?

Verdict: 10/10

Sophie