Sunday 20 July 2014

Under The Sea ~ A Sneak Peek of Ally Condie's Atlantia


Atlantia (Sneak Peek)
By Ally Condie 

Rating: 4.8


'Though my feet are firmly on the ground of Atlantia, I'm dissolving.


My sister's gone.
She decided to go Above.

She would never do this.
She did.

The last thing she said to me was that the city was breathing. I hear my own breathing now, in and out and in and out. 

I live here. I will die here.

I am never going to leave.'


My thoughts on the sneak peek:

Welcome to the underwater city of Atlantia.

'Atlantia does resemble a giant sea creature sprawled out in the ocean. The tentacles of our streets and thoroughfares web out from the larger round hubs of the neighbourhoods and marketplaces. Everything is enclosed, of course.

We live underwater, but we're still human; we need walls and air to protect us.'

Rio, our protagonist, dreams of glimpsing the Above - of leaving Atlantia. But all her dreams turn to ashes when her twin sister Bay chooses to go Above instead, stranding Rio Below.

And so begins Rio's journey to uncover the secrets of the past and discover her future.

Ally Condie's done it again!

I remember that feeling I got when I read Matched for the very first time. I was totally in love with Condie's world and the clever way in which she'd brought that world to readers. 

Reading this excerpt from Atlantia was the same - if not better. Atlantia holds a level of sophistication I feel Matched lacked. Atlantia's characters are more complex and the storyline grips you right from the start.

I'm excited to see how Atlantia will turn out and will most definitely be buying myself a copy, come October :)

Tuesday 15 July 2014

Pick of the Week: The Last Days by Scott Westerfeld

The Last Days (Peeps #2) 
By Scott Westerfeld

Rating: 4.1 


“'Ring around the rosie.
A pocket full of posie.Ashes ashes, we all fall down.'

Some people say that this poem is about the Black Death, the fourteenth-century plague that killed 100-million people...

Sadly, though, most experts think this is nonsense.

How can I be so sure about this rhyme when all the experts disagree? 


Because I ate the kid who made it up.”


My thoughts on the book:

Scott Westerfeld's writing is a gift to the senses. 

Unlike some books, where you're tempted to skip the large chunks of description between the relevant pieces of dialogue, The Last Days' descriptions are, quite simply, lavish. 


The descriptions transport you right into Scott Westerfeld's kooky, paranormal world, overwhelming your senses and making you feel as if you were standing right alongside his characters.

Despite the tendency of certain characters to act either creepy or relatively annoying at some parts of the book (or a mix of the two), overall the book was an enjoyable mix of modern music making and the enigmatic side of the paranormal.
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