Ringer by Lauren Oliver

SPOILER ALERT:

This is book 2 in the Replica duology. I do not have a review of Replica because I read it before starting this blog. 

Three weeks after Gemma returns home and Lyra is reunited with the father she doesn't remember, the Suits come after the Replicas. When Gemma tries to warn Lyra she is mistaken for a Replica and herded into an abandoned rural airport. Lyra travels to Pennsylvania with Caelum, the Replica who helped her survive the fire at Haven. Lyra and Caelum search for Haven's “God” to save Lyra from the prions eating away at her brain. Gemma, once she's locked up with four Replicas who look exactly like her, can't convince anyone she's not really a Replica. After befriending one of her Replicas, Calliope, she realizes just how different the Replicas are. 

When I read Replica, I read all of Gemma's story and then all of Lyra's story. So this time I decided to mix the stories up. Lauren Oliver gives us the choice as to how we read this story and it's wonderful. When you have multiple narrators, most authors switch back and forth when they want to, meaning they're controlling how you read and interpret the story. But what if you could choose who to follow and when you follow them? Would it change your reading experience? 

I started with Gemma and read the first half of her part one before reading all of Lyra's part one, finishing with Gemma's. Part two was Gemma, Lyra, Gemma, Lyra. Part three was Gemma, Lyra, Gemma. 

This is a crazy book, however you read it. Oliver weaves science (prion disease) with the dystopian (the government using clones and “orphans” for human medical testing). While Lyra, our “Replica” isn't actually a clone and her friend Gemma is one of the first, they have uniquely different experiences. Gemma fights against Calliope, one of her Replicas, while Lyra fights against the disease the Haven “Gods” gave her, just to save Gemma. 

The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood

Book 2 of the MaddAddam series. 

After Oryx and Crake, we expect the series to follow Jimmy/Snowman, but it doesn't. We start with Toby and Ren, two women who used to be a part of the God's Gardeners cult. We watch them survive the Waterless Flood, the plague Crake set upon humanity. We see the events that lead up the Waterless Flood as told by Toby and Ren, including how they know some of the characters we've already met.

In true Atwood fashion, we're jerked from the present to the past and back again. How does the God's Gardeners cult relate to Crake? How do our heroines fit into the part of the story we already know? And how does this cult predict what's coming?

The answers are murky at best, but through the “scripture” and hymns of Adam One and the God's Gardeners we see how they perceive the world around them, a world that is so close to ours. Reading Oryx and Crake, I thought Atwood's future was crazy, but once I see it through someone else's eyes I see it's already happening. It's on it's way. 

So you have two questions to answer: Will you read MaddAddam, the final book in the trilogy? Will you realize that it's coming, that the Waterless Flood will overtake all of us before we can fight it?

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

Many members of the Russian aristocracy were executed, banished, or fled under cover of darkness. This is the (fictional) story of one under house arrest in the Metropol Hotel in Moscow. Count Alexander Rostov cannot step outside of the hotel without fear of being shot on sight. He meets many interesting characters, both long-term workers at the Metropol and regulars at the Boyarski, the high-end restaurant in the hotel. His sudden adoption of a young girl changes everything and he uses his Bolshevik and resistance friends to change his circumstances. 

I almost stopped reading this book because Towles takes too long to convince us why we should like his Count Rostov. Once he hooks us, we're in and desperate to figure out how he can live within the confines of a hotel, in a tiny room in the attic. His relationships (and eventual job) are the meat of the story. I mean, really, how could someone live in the attic of a hotel without making friends with everyone?

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

A different Earth, a supercontinent ravaged by earthquakes and volcanoes. A girl with a potential power, a seasoned Orogene trying to cull the quakes, and a woman desperate to find her daughter bring us into The Stillness. Magic, fear, and a volatile land make for a scary place to live. Damaya, Syenite, and Essun walk us through the events leading up to the most recent Season. A Season is a period of cold, darkness, and/or anything else that can happen after a giant earthquake sets off a giant volcano, as the Stillness rests on many. 

This is the first book in the Broken Earthtrilogy by N.K. Jemisin. Jemisin creates a vivid world, something we can see without having ever been there. She also puts us in one of the characters' bodies, using “you” instead of another pronoun. It made me feel like I was part of the story more than other books. She creates tension, she relieves part of it, and then she throws something else at you. This is an amazing book and I'm excited to read the magic of the next book, The Obelisk Gate.

Caraval by Stephanie Garber

Set in a faraway land, in another time, Caraval is a story of magic and deception. After all, it's just a game. But don't get carried away or you may die. Scarlett Dragna has been waiting her entire life to visit Caraval, partly because her grandmother talked about her visit as a young woman and partly because her father turned violent after her mother left. Any time Scarlett disobeys her father, he beats her younger sister Tella, and vice versa. When their long-awaited invitations to Caraval arrive the sisters escape their father with the help of a young sailor. Once they arrive at Caraval they realize he isn't who he seems, but nothing is as it seems. The sisters are separated and Scarlett must race against the clock to save Tella without letting the game drive her insane. 

This is a great story with lots of fun twists and turns. The characters are great, the pliable storyline even better! The only problem I have is Scarlett and Tella's violent father. At first there's no reason for his violence but as the story progresses we see what set him off. However, it seems to be a simplified explanation. 'Because X happened, man suddenly became violent.' Sounds extreme, even in today's environment. The ending was great and I'm looking forward to reading the second book when it comes out this summer. 

From Sand and Ash by Amy Harmon

Eva and Angelo are best friends, they grew up together and know everything about each other. But in Italy during World War II life becomes dangerous for them both. Eva Rosselli is Jewish and Angelo Bianco is a Catholic priest who is working with the local resistance (some inside the Vatican) to rescue and hide Jewish people being hunted for by the Fascist Italians and then by the German army in Rome. Eva refuses to hide and poses as Angelo's sister so she can work with the resistance to help her people. Will they get away with it?

From Sand and Ash is a moving historical novel focusing on Italy during World War II. The best part of the story is the relationship between the Catholic Church, specifically the Vatican, and the Roman Jewish population. The priests go above and beyond to help the most marginalized citizens without caring about religion. Too bad that would never happen in America today, instead we have Christians attacking anyone and everyone who doesn't believe their narrow-minded view of Christianity, people who wouldn't help their fellow neighbor for fear of being “tainted” by outside beliefs. (Such is life in the Bible Belt, at least.)