Inside Out review by Maria V. Snyder

Book Title: Inside Out

Year Published: 2011

Bought Or Received: Birthday gift from my parents

Hardback or Paperback: Paperback

Rating:☀☀☀☀

Inside Out is a well thought out, clever dystopian novel that I can proudly say is one of my top reads of 2011.
   
I have to be honest and say that at first Inside Out really didn't pull me in the same way Maria's Study trilogy did. It starts out with a lot of information about the setting and system of how things work in the world of the Scrubs. Whilst necessary and interesting I found this to be a little overwhelming. The information overload nearly encouraged me to put it down and pick it up at a later date.

However. Sticking with it was completely worth it! Maria is full of a lot of rich ideas, you can tell she plans out her ideas carefully. Combine this with her brilliant and easy flowing writing and whalah! You are left with an intriguing book with twists and turns that you wouldn't of guessed.

Let's talk about the characters. First up, Trella.

  Trellas is a strong willed person, that's for sure. Apart from her best friend Cog she is very cautious and finds it hard to trust people even after people risk their lives to help her. Along the way it is very interesting to see her character development, I think that Maria is very good at developing her characters without it feeling forced.

  The side chaarcters are also an interesting case, I also noticed this in her other books. You get to know the side characters quiet well, I often get left feeling with some books:

A. We don't get a good insight of the side characters and if we do they are poorly developed  or we just get a paragraph of information about them that doesn;'t really help.
or
B. They are carbon clones of each other even when regarding gender.

I would say more about the characters but it is fun to get introduced yourself (:

Whilst the plot is fast paced and serious we get splashes of humor mixed in which makes it a little less intense... Team Sheep (:

I have read the second book and will be writing about it soon, i'm gutted there isn't another one!

Have you read this book, what did you thik about it?

Blood Red Road by Moira Young review

 Book Title: Blood Red Road 

Bought or Recieved: I won this over at WondrousReads and Scholastic sent it over, thank you both!
Hardback or Paperback: Paperback
Year Published: 2011
Rating: ☀☀☀☀     

I was very excited to read Blood Red Road when I first heard about it, it sounded a little similar to The Chaos walking trilogy which are some of my favorite books of all time. When I found out Scholastic were sending me a copy I jumped over the moon.

Blood Red Road is the first in a trilogy and is told from the first person which means our main character Saba is the narrator. The way it is written is in a similar sort of way to The Chaos Walking Trilogy - the main characters are not full educated so it is written with spelling and grammar mistakes. It took me a little while to adjust to it in this book, it is very clear that Saba hasn't been to school or anything. I wouldn't say it is hard to understand what is trying to be said or what is going on, it somehow just works.

The story starts off in the middle of nowhere and we get introduced to Saba, her twin brother Lugh, her sister Emmi and her Father. Moira Young  shows us early on what sort of relationships each have to another and we hear a little bit of back story. We find out that Saba and Lugh and inseparable, Saba hates Emmi and their dad is perhaps just a tad mad ;)

The story starts off very quickly and continues throughout the book at a fast pace, her brother Lugh gets kidnapped and Saba has no delay in deciding to set off to find him.

I'm not going to give much away about the storyline because it's much better to find out for yourself but I do have to say that there is a lot of character development in this book. It doesn't shy away from death and details but it does in in a way that isn't explicit or unnecessary. The characters are believable and likable and we get to see a lot of different personalities. We also get a hint of romance at the side, yahoo!

The ending was good, it wasn't a big cliffhanger and it had closure to the arc we read about in this first part but it set up a good stage for the continuation of the next book that is due out sometime in 2012.

Overall I really enjoyed this books and would say if you're a dystopian fan, go for it! I can't wait to read the next book (:

Also if you have read this, what were your thoughts?